Early-life environmental enrichment generates persistent individualized behavior in mice

Analysis of hippocampal DNA methylation changes that were induced by environmental enrichment and maintained for long-term after withdrawal from the enriched environment. Overall design: DNA methylation patterns were compared between three groups of mice. One group was housed in standard housing conditions for 6 months, one group in environmental enrichment for six months, and a third group was housed for three months in environmental enrichment followed by three months of standard housing. DNA methylation profiling was performed by Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing of micro-dissected dentate gyrus tissue.