title: The effects of extrinsic stress on somatic markers and behavior are dependent on animal housing conditions.
abstract: Properties of the environment play an important role in animal wellbeing and may modulate the effects of external threats. Whereas stressors can affect emotion and impair cognition, environmental enrichment may prevent the occurrence of such negative sequelae. Animals exposed to semi-natural group-housing experience a complex environment; whereas environmental enrichment might protect against stressors, a socially-enriched environment(SEE) could entail aggressive inter-male encounters with additive stress effects. In the present study, we investigated the effects of exposure to external stressors, footshocks and forced swimming, on adrenal gland and body weights as well as on behavior in rats housed under SEE or standard, non-enriched environment (NEE), conditions. We found that SEEs reduced the anxiogenic effects of stress. Moreover, SEEs improved the performance in an operant task and prevented the increase in impulsive behavior produced by external stressors on NEE animals. Whereas these findings are indicative of stress-buffering effects of SEEs, adrenal gland weights were increased while total body weights were decreased in SEE rats, suggesting that SEEs may simultaneously exacerbate physiological measurements of stress. Finally, in the SEE, total aggressive behaviors and body wounds were paradoxically reduced in animals that received external stressors in comparison to non-stressed controls. The consequences of the external stressors applied here are not uniform, varying according to the housing condition and the outcome considered.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland; Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Damien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huzard
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Dave G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Mumby
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sandi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Guillaume L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Poirier
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland. Electronic address: m.vanderkooij@uni-mainz.de.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: van der Kooij
mesh_terms: D000311:Adrenal Glands / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D000818:Animals; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D004597:Electroshock; D005260:Female; D006799:Housing, Animal; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009929:Organ Size; D011897:Random Allocation; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Anxiety; Environmental enrichment; Resilience; Social behavior; Stress