Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Brain Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Brain Res. 2019 Aug 15;1717:1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2019.03.033. Epub 2019 Mar 28.
Social plasticity is the ability to adaptively change the expression of social behaviour according to experience, allowing animals to optimize their social relationships in the context of previous experience and the complexities of social environments. Environmental enrichment (EE) mimics a stimulating lifestyle at the laboratory level and has demonstrated beneficial effects on various aspects of brain structure, function, behaviour and cognition. EE has also been shown to induce neuroprotection and functional compensation that is therapeutic in a range of different brain disorders. The effects of EE on social plasticity have received little attention, despite the fact that many components of the mechanisms of social plasticity and EE-induced plasticity are overlapping. We review and discuss EE effects on social plasticity, with a focus on laboratory rodent studies. This review presents evidence that EE affects social plasticity, via both direct and indirect mechanisms, as well as under pathological conditions. In conclusion, EE is a valuable tool to study social cognition and behaviour, and could inform therapeutic approaches to the many brain disorders involving social dysfunction, including schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders.
社会可塑性是指根据经验适应性地改变社会行为表达的能力，使动物能够在先前经验和社会环境复杂性的背景下优化其社会关系。环境富集（EE）在实验室层面模拟了一种刺激的生活方式，并已证明对大脑结构、功能、行为和认知的各个方面都有有益的影响。EE 还被证明可以诱导神经保护和功能代偿，对一系列不同的脑部疾病具有治疗作用。尽管社会可塑性和 EE 诱导可塑性的许多机制的组成部分是重叠的，但 EE 对社会可塑性的影响却很少受到关注。我们回顾并讨论了 EE 对社会可塑性的影响，重点是实验室啮齿动物研究。这篇综述提供的证据表明，EE 通过直接和间接机制以及在病理条件下影响社会可塑性。总之，EE 是研究社会认知和行为的一种有价值的工具，并为涉及社交功能障碍的许多脑部疾病（包括精神分裂症和自闭症谱系障碍）的治疗方法提供了信息。
