Environmental enrichment and neurogenesis: from mice to humans

- We outline a brief history of environmental enrichment and neurogenesis.
- We outline key factors that contribute to the effects of environmental enrichment.
- We discuss two prominent molecular mechanisms associated with environmental enrichment.
- We discuss a causal relationship between enrichment induced neurogenesis and behavior.
- We discuss the similarities between mice and humans in regards to environmental enrichment and neurogenesis.

The brain is a dynamic structure that constantly undergoes cellular and molecular changes in response to the environment. Ultimately, these experience-dependent changes modify and shape behavior. One example of this neuroplasticity is the robust and continuous generation of new neurons that occurs in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus. These new neurons are thought to play a fundamental role in hippocampus-dependent behavior and are modulated by experience and changes in the environment. In this review, we will focus on the cognitive and molecular relationship between environmental enrichment and adult neurogenesis. In addition, we discuss some of the similarities between the human and animal literature in regards to neurogenesis, hippocampus-dependent behavior, and environmental enrichment.