Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 56 ›› Issue (4): 1527-1539.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2025.04.006

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Reversal Effect of Environmental Enrichment on Behavioral Abnormalities in Lactation Maternal Separation Offspring and Its Molecular Mechanism

WANG Hui1(), WANG Yueshang2, HU Xiyi1, HAN Chengquan1, LI Fukuan1, YANG Yan3, LÜ Shenjin1,*()   

  1. 1. College of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Linyi University, Linyi 276000, China
    2. School of Medicine, Linyi University, Linyi 276000, China
    3. Linyi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Linyi 276012, China
  • Received:2024-06-25 Online:2025-04-23 Published:2025-04-28
  • Contact: LÜ Shenjin E-mail:wys450@163.com;lvshenjin@lyu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Adverse early life experiences affect the developing nervous system, and shape the offspring's adult social behavior pattern. Maternal separation is an early life stress that lactating offspring often face, which has a lasting impact on their psychological and physiological development and can lead to neuroendocrine system disorders in offspring, and increases the risk of abnormal behavior and mental illness in the offspring's adult. Environmental enrichment is a therapeutic strategy used to improve the quality of life of captive animals, stimulate animal emotional expression, and reverse neurological damage or behavioral abnormalities in early stressed animals. The behavioral plasticity of offspring induced by early stress can be restored by environmental enrichment intervention in later life (adolescence or adulthood). Neurobiological changes and epigenetic modification are the main molecular mechanisms by which environmental enrichment reverses the abnormal behavior of early stressed offspring. Therefore, this paper reviews the abnormal behavior of offspring caused by maternal separation, the effects of environmental enrichment on alleviating the abnormal behavior of maternal separation, and the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating environmental enrichment effects. In order to provide effective intervention strategies for early life stress offspring abnormal behavior, and provide scientific basis for improving the welfare level of captive animals.

Key words: maternal separation, abnormal behavior, environmental enrichment, reversal effect, molecular mechanism

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