From a paper published in Mar. 2023 in the Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Chen X, Liu L, Zhong Y, Liu Y. Enriched environment promotes post-stroke angiogenesis through astrocytic interleukin-17A. Front Behav Neurosci. 2023 Feb 16;17:1053877. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1053877. PMID: 36873773; PMCID: PMC9979086.Environmental Enrichment is known to help recover from a stroke. Individuals exposed to Environmental Enrichment see:
- Reduced neurological deficits
- Enhanced motor skills
- Improved spatial learning and memory
- Increased brain plasticity and neurogenesis
This latest research aimed at identifying some of the underlying mechanisms to help us understand what happens exactly in the brain when it is stimulated in an enriched environment.
As in previous studies, they saw that the individuals improved in the areas mentioned above. They also saw that Environmental Enrichment leads to an increase in the creation of blood vessels (angiogenesis) around the area affected by the stroke (infarct). They also that the damaged area reduced in size.