title: Transgenerational effects of environmental enrichment on repetitive motor behavior development.
abstract: The favorable consequences of environmental enrichment (EE) on brain and behavior development are well documented. Much less is known, however, about transgenerational benefits of EE on non-enriched offspring. We explored whether transgenerational effects of EE might extend to the development of repetitive motor behaviors in deer mice. Repetitive motor behaviors are invariant patterns of movement that, across species, can be reduced by EE. We found that EE not only attenuated the development of repetitive behavior in dams, but also in their non-enriched offspring. Moreover, maternal behavior did not seem to mediate the transgenerational effect we found, although repetitive behavior was affected by reproductive experience. These data support a beneficial transgenerational effect of EE on repetitive behavior development and suggest a novel benefit of reproductive experience.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. Electronic address: abechard@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Allison R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Bechard
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D004777:Environment; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010542:Peromyscus; D012919:Social Behavior; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Deer mice; Early experience; Maternal behavior; Reproductive experience