Semi-natural housing rescues social behavior and reduces repetitive exploratory behavior of BTBR autistic-like mice.

Researchers studied mice with autism-like traits and found that providing a more natural, enriched living environment from birth helped improve their social skills and reduced repetitive behaviors. The mice lived in environments with more space, toys, and social interaction opportunities compared to standard laboratory cages. While some autism-like behaviors improved, others like sensory preferences and certain vocalizations remained unchanged.

This 2023 study examined the effects of early environmental enrichment on autism-like behaviors in BTBR mice, a commonly used autism model. Researchers compared standard housing conditions with semi-natural housing that included social and physical enrichment from birth. The enriched environment significantly improved social behaviors and reduced repetitive exploratory behaviors in BTBR mice, though it did not affect texture preferences or maternal isolation-induced vocalizations. Wildtype control mice showed different responses, with enrichment affecting only their vocalization characteristics.

The findings suggest environmental factors substantially influence autism-related behaviors and highlight the importance of housing conditions in research design.

Results suggest environmental modifications and enrichment strategies may have therapeutic potential for addressing social deficits and repetitive behaviors in autism, though effects appear selective rather than comprehensive across all core features.

Study used animal models which may not fully translate to human autism. Sample size not reported in abstract. Limited to early-life enrichment intervention. Did not examine long-term effects or mechanisms underlying behavioral changes.

Environmental enrichment confers numerous benefits when implemented in murine models and can reduce behavioral symptomatology in models of disease, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, previous work did not examine the impact of early-life environmental enrichment on each core feature of ASD. We thus implemented a social and physical enrichment at birth, modeling a semi-natural housing, and examined its impact on communicative, social, sensory, and repetitive behaviors using BTBR (autistic-like) and C57BL/6 J (B6, wildtype) mice, comparing them to standard housing conditions. We found that environmental enrichment alleviated the social deficit of juvenile BTBR mice and reduced their repetitive exploratory behavior but did not affect their rough versus smooth texture preference nor the number of maternal isolation-induced pup calls.

Environmental enrichment only affected the call characteristics of B6 mice. One interpretation of these data is that early-life environmental enrichment has significant therapeutic potential to treat selective core features of ASD. Another interpretation is that reducing environmental complexity causes selective behavioral deficits in ASD-prone mice suggesting that current standard housing may be suboptimal. Overall, our data illustrate the extent to which the environment influences behavior and highlights the importance of considering housing conditions when designing experiments and interpreting behavioral results.