Regulation of neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders by juvenile environmental factors

Abstract

Many clinical and epidemiological researches have pointed out the importance of environmental factors, as well as genetic factors, in the etiology of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Then, in late years, there is a growing number of animal studies focused on the environmental etiology of psychiatric illness. We have recently investigated the roles of juvenile environmental factors in the psycho-neurologic functions and the effects of maternal environment in the pre-and perinatal periods on the neurodevelopment of offspring. In this review, we summarize our findings on the improvement of psychobehavioral and neuroanatomical abnormalities by environmental factors and drug treatments during juvenile periods in the PACAP-KO mice, a schizophrenia animal model, and the prenatal valproate-exposed mice, an autism animal model, and further discuss the possibility of environmental regulation in the pathogenesis of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.