Maternal separation disrupts emotional, cognitive, and metabolic development in rats: protective and regulatory effects of environmental enrichment

Aims: Early-life maternal separation (MS) induces long-term metabolic and neurobehavioral disturbances, whereas environmental enrichment (EE) is considered a protective intervention; however, potential sex-dependent responses remain unclear. This study evaluated whether adolescent EE mitigates MS-related alterations in growth and emotional-cognitive outcomes and whether these effects differ between males and females.Methods: Sprague-Dawley litters were allocated to control, MS, or MS+EE groups. MS consisted of daily 180-minute separations from postnatal day (PND) 2-14, and EE was initiated after PND14. Body weight was monitored at several developmental stages. Neurobehavioral assessments included the open field test (OFT), elevated plus maze (EPM), forced swim test (FST), and passive avoidance test (PAT). Data were analyzed using ANOVA with Tukey-Kramer post hoc comparisons.Results: MS resulted in significantly reduced weight gain on PND7 (p