Abstract:

Enriched laboratory housing has also been utilized to evaluate its neuroprotective and rehabilitative potential as a translational intervention for complications associated with stroke, Huntington’s disease, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and even psychological stressors. In order to evaluate the ‘preventative’ effects of EE an animal is reared in this condition prior to the beginning of disease progression, or before encountering a challenge. The purpose is to determine if there is either a delay or inhibition of pathology. The ‘rehabilitative’ potential of EE is assessed by placing an animal into this housing after the initiation of the pathology, or challenge, to determine if there is a reversal of the associated adverse consequences. The benefits afforded to animals reared in EE suggest that this housing condition is akin to the clinical rehabilitation process. Despite there being a paucity of clinical trials to validate EE in either neuroprotection or recovery following human disease or trauma it is believed that the cognitive, physical and/or social stimulation that accompany the rehabilitative processes is enriching and advantageous to patients.