Danielle A Lopes
Environmental enrichment (EE) is an animal management technique, which aims to supply full welfare and better adaptation to the experimental conditions of laboratory animals. Exposing animals to different behavioral tests can assess the consequences of EE. Among its several applications, EE has been identified as a protective think about the treatment of some stress-related emotional disorders, like depression. The anxiolytic effects induced by EE, on the opposite hand, aren't as clear. In fact, one hypothesis that has been raised is that EE acts as a light stressor agent. this study reviews the literature published from 2006 to 2016 on environmental enrichment, stress and anxiety. The terms "environmental enrichment and stress” and “environmental enrichment and anxiety" were searched in MEDLINE, LILACS and Web of Sciences databases. The results obtained demonstrate that there are an excellent sort of EE protocols adopted. a big a part of these studies shows that EE reduces stress and anxiety measurements and results in important neuroplastic changes. Nevertheless, since the EE protocols adopted vary greatly among studies, this might contribute to conflicting results. Standardizing EE protocols would help to know EE effects on anxiety and stressrelated measurements.
