2025 Hyper Recent •CC0 1.0 Universal

This work is dedicated to the public domain. No rights reserved.

Access Preprint From Server
June 4th, 2025
Version: 1
University of New South Wales
animal behavior and cognition
biorxiv

Underappreciated role of environmental enrichment in alleviating depression and anxiety: Quantitative evidence synthesis of rodent models

Yang, Y.Open in Google Scholar•Liu, M.Open in Google Scholar•Morrison, K.Open in Google Scholar•Lagisz, M.Open in Google Scholar•Nakagawa, S.Open in Google Scholar

Environmental enrichment has long been recognized as a non-pharmacological intervention to mitigate mental health issues, yet its efficacy, and heterogeneity of treatment effects across experimental contexts remain underexplored. Heterogeneity of treatment effects, which reflects variability in individual responses to interventions, is a critical factor in determining the generalizability and personalization needs of treatments. Here, we conducted a registered meta-analysis of 62 studies and 1,112 comparisons in rodent models to evaluate the impact of environmental enrichment on depressive and anxiety-like behaviours. We found that environmental enrichment reduced these behaviours of animal models by 16% on average and decreased inter-individual variability by 12%, indicating not only effectiveness but also low heterogeneity of treatment effects, which suggests consistent effects across individuals. Environmental enrichment further nullified the adverse effects of stressors, demonstrating a significant antagonistic interaction. These effects were robust across multiple sensitivity analyses, including model-based predictions, post-stratification, multi-model inference, publication bias correction, and critical appraisal of study quality. Moderator analyses highlighted the importance of exposure timing and the inclusion of social enrichment components. Taken together, our pre-clinical evidence on rodent models supports environmental enrichment as a low-cost, scalable, and biologically grounded intervention with translational relevance for developing equitable and accessible treatments for depression and anxiety. Given the importance of innovation and personalization in mental health care, the low heterogeneity of treatment effects of environmental enrichment positions it as a promising avenue for non-pharmacological therapeutic strategies that can be broadly applied without extensive tailoring.

Similar Papers

biorxiv
Fri Jun 06 2025
Plug-and-Play automated behavioral tracking of zebrafish larvae with DeepLabCut and SLEAP: pre-trained networks and datasets of annotated poses
Zebrafish are an important model system in behavioral neuroscience due to their rapid development and suite of distinct, innate behaviors. Quantifying many of these larval behaviors requires detailed tracking of eye and tail kinematics, which in turn demands imaging at high spatial and temporal resolution, ideally using semi or fully automated tracking methods for throughput efficiency. However, c...
Scholz, L. A.
•
Mancienne, T. G.
•
Stednitz, S. J.
•
Scott, E. K.
•
Lee, C. C. Y.
biorxiv
Fri Jun 06 2025
Comparison of a computer vision model to a human observer in detecting African mammals in camera trap images within a safari park
Remote monitoring technologies are increasingly utilized in animal research for their capacity to enhance data collection efficiency. However, they present challenges, and as such researchers have resorted to utilizing deep learning to automatically classify acquired data therefore expediting the review process. While this practice is common in field studies it has been less adopted in zoo monitor...
Davies Walsh, N.
•
Chalmers, C.
•
Fergus, P.
•
Longmore, S.
...•
Wich, S.
biorxiv
Fri Jun 06 2025
Behavioral and Pharmacological Validation of the Differential Reinforcement of Low-Rate Behavior Paradigm in Non-Human Primates
The development of novel antidepressants is hindered by limited predictive validity of preclinical models. The Differential Reinforcement of Low-Rate (DRL) task is a classic rodent assay with strong sensitivity to antidepressants, but its translational potential remains unexplored in non-human primates (NHPs). Here, we adapted the DRL task for use in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and e...
Vanderlip, C. R.
•
Dunn, S. R.
•
Wettstein, J. G.
•
Vivian, J. A.
•
Glavis-Bloom, C.
biorxiv
Fri Jun 06 2025
Pharmacological Reversal of Attention Deficits in Non-Human Primates: Implications for Alzheimer's Disease
Attention deficits emerge early in Alzheimer\'s disease (AD), where cholinergic dysfunction compromises goal-directed behavior and cognitive control. Therefore, attentional impairments may serve as early indicators of cognitive decline, and also as meaningful targets for therapeutic intervention. Despite their clinical importance, attention deficits remain under-targeted by current treatments, whi...
Vanderlip, C. R.
•
Dunn, S. R.
•
Cefalu, J. S.
•
Ballard, T. M.
...•
Glavis-Bloom, C.
biorxiv
Fri Jun 06 2025
A State-Dependent Drift Diffusion Model Reveals Mice Actively Explore A Speed-Accuracy Continuum During Decision-Making
Understanding how animals shift between different decision-making strategies is critical for bridging normative models with naturalistic behavior. While drift-diffusion models (DDMs) provide a powerful framework for describing evidence accumulation in two-alternative forced choice (TAFC) tasks, they assume fixed parameters across trials--an assumption often violated in practice. Here, we introduce...
Senne, R. A.
•
Delgado-Sallent, C.
•
Ramirez, S.
•
Scott, B. B.
•
DePasquale, B.
biorxiv
Thu Jun 05 2025
Aggressive trait selection influences life-history trade-offs, favoring survival over reproductive success in Drosophila melanogaster males
Life history traits are all essential traits linked to development, survival and reproduction, directly influencing individual fitness. Limited environmental or physiological resources force organisms to balance competing demands, leading to fundamental trade-offs, particularly between survival and reproduction. Male aggression often enhances reproductive success by improving resource acquisition ...
Defert, A.
•
Gout, R.
•
Pennot, G.
•
Jamme, F.
...•
Trannoy, S.
biorxiv
Thu Jun 05 2025
Solo songs, duets, and territory defense across seasons in female Galapagos Yellow Warblers (Setophaga petechia aureola)
While the function of bird song has been well studied in male songbirds, the function of female song is less well understood. This is partly due to a historical view of females occupying a passive role compared with males, which led to ignoring female song even in some well-studied species. We report one such case in yellow warblers (Setophaga petechia), as no other study investigated female song ...
Yelimlies, A.
•
Alban Morales, K.
•
Akcay, C.
•
Kleindorfer, S.
biorxiv
Thu Jun 05 2025
Deep learning from videography as a tool for measuring E. coli infection in poultry
Poultry farming is threatened by regular outbreaks of Escherichia coli (E. coli) that lead to significant economic losses and public health risks. However, traditional surveillance methods often lack sensitivity and scalability. Early detection of infected poultry using minimally invasive procedures is thus essential for preventing epidemics. To that end, we leverage recent advancements in compute...
Scheidwasser, N.
•
Poulsen, L. L.
•
Leow, P. R.
•
Khurana, M. P.
...•
Duchene, D. A.
biorxiv
Thu Jun 05 2025
Fentanyl reinforcement history has sex-specific effects on multi-step decision-making
It is commonly thought that drug addiction involves a transition to habitual control of action, where the choice to consume drugs becomes automatized and reflects a failure to deliberate over possible negative outcomes. Determining whether the pursuit of addictive drugs is habitual is hampered by a lack of behavior assessments suitable for use during a bout of drug seeking. Therefore, to understan...
Garr, E.
•
Cheng, Y.
•
Dong, A.
•
Janak, P. H.
biorxiv
Wed Jun 04 2025
Motor deficits in the McGill-R-Thy1-APP transgenic rat model of Alzheimer's Disease
The McGill-R-Thy1-APP rat is a transgenic model of Alzheimers Disease (AD) which expresses APP with two mutations found in cases of familial AD, resulting in the development of amyloid pathology and cognitive deficits. Motor deficits are common symptoms of AD, emerging early in the disease, and are correlated with AD neuropathology and cognitive symptoms. This study evaluated heterozygous and homo...
Roddick, K.
•
Northrup, P. A.
•
Schellinck, H. M.
•
Brown, R. E.