AUTHOR=Falkowska Marta , Ntamati Niels R. , Nevian Natalie E. , Nevian Thomas , Acuña Mario A. TITLE=Environmental enrichment promotes resilience to neuropathic pain-induced depression and correlates with decreased excitability of the anterior cingulate cortex JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience VOLUME=17 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1139205 DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1139205 ISSN=1662-5153 ABSTRACT=
Depression is a common comorbidity of chronic pain with many patients being affected. However, efficient pharmacological treatment strategies are still lacking. Therefore, it is desirable to find additional alternative approaches. Environmental enrichment has been suggested as a method to alleviate pain-induced depression. However, the neuronal mechanisms of its beneficial effects are still elusive. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a central role in processing pain-related negative affect and chronic pain-induced plasticity in this region correlates with depressive symptoms. We studied the consequences of different durations of environmental enrichment on pain sensitivity and chronic pain-induced depression-like behaviors in a mouse model of neuropathic pain. Furthermore, we correlated the behavioral outcomes to the activity levels of pyramidal neurons in the ACC by analyzing their electrophysiological properties