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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 15, 2002, 22(18):7840-7843

BRIEF COMMUNICATION
Environmental Enrichment Reverses the Effects of Maternal Separation on Stress Reactivity

Darlene D. Francis¹, Josie Diorio¹, Paul M. Plotsky², and Michael J. Meaney¹

¹ Developmental Neuroendocrinology Laboratory, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Departments of Psychiatry, and Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H4H 1R3, Canada, and ² Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322

Postnatal maternal separation increases hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) gene expression and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and behavioral responses to stress. We report here that environmental enrichment during the peripubertal period completely reverses the effects of maternal separation on both HPA and behavioral responses to stress, with no effect on CRF mRNA expression. We conclude that environmental enrichment leads to a functional reversal of the effects of maternal separation through compensation for, rather than reversal of, the neural effects of early life adversity.

Key words: early experience; environmental enrichment; maternal separation; stress; corticotropin-releasing factor; glucocorticoid receptors

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Copyright © 2002 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/02/22187840-04$05.00/0

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