Environmental Enrichment as a Strategy to Confront Social Isolation Under the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The moment of social isolation experienced by the world population due to the COVID-19 pandemic tends to trigger behavioral changes of different orders and on an exponential scale, regardless of social class, age, gender, or ethnicity. Environmental enrichment presents itself as an important strategy to face the social isolation imposed by the pandemic, in order to act as an important agent of induction of biological factors for cognitive and emotional development, favoring a better possibility of adaptation to isolation.

Keywords: COVID-19; environmental enrichment; neurogenesis; neuroplasticity; social isolation.

Figure 1

Graphical representation of the relationship between plasticity and life stages of the individual. The critical period represents the phase of greatest brain plasticity, determined by the amount and intensity of new stimuli and greater neurogenesis. Environmental enrichment is shown to be an important factor for increasing plasticity in the adult and senile stages of the individual.