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Ideal homes? Housing effects on rodent brain and behaviour.
Journal article

Ideal homes? Housing effects on rodent brain and behaviour.

  • Würbel H Institute of Animal Sciences, Physiology and Animal Husbandry, ETH Standort Schwerzenbach, Schorenstrasse 16, CH-8603, Schwerzenbach, Switzerland. hanno.wuerbel@inw.agri.ethz.ch
  • 2001-03-16
Published in:
  • Trends in neurosciences. - 2001
Adaptation, Psychological
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Environment
Housing, Animal
Mice
Rats
Research Design
Rodentia
Stereotyped Behavior
English Rodents used in biomedical research are typically reared in small cages that lack key features of their natural habitats. These conditions impose constraints on behaviour and brain development, resulting in altered brain functions. In this article, evidence for three different ways in which barren housing conditions interfere with brain development and behaviour is reviewed. Early environmental deprivation, thwarting of behavioral response rules, and disruption of habitat-dependent adaptation processes are shown to result in aberrant or maladaptive brain functions. Current standard housing conditions could therefore compromise the utility of rodents for research, especially in behavioural neuroscience. However, a better understanding of the animals' needs and of the environmental factors involved in the control of behaviour could offer a biological basis for refinement.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/71483
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