Early educational and health enrichment at age 3-5 years is associated with increased autonomic and central nervous system arousal and orienting at age 11 years: Evidence from the Mauritius Child Health Project

Little is known about the effects of environmental enrichment on psychophys iological measures of arousal and orienting in humans. This study tests the hypothesis that early educational and health enrichment is associated with long-term increases in psychophysiological orienting and arousal. One hund red children were experimentally assigned to a two-year enriched nursery sc hool intervention at ages 3-5 years and matched at age 3 years on psychophy siological measures, gender, and ethnicity to 100 comparisons who received the normal educational experience. Children were retested 6-8 years later a t age 11 years on skin conductance (SC) and electroencephalogram (EEG) meas ures of arousal and attention during pre- and postexperimental rest periods and during the continuous performance task. Nursery enrichment wets associ ated with increased SC amplitudes, faster SC rise times, faster SC recovery times, and less slow-wave EEG during both rest and CPT conditions. This is believed to he the first study to show that early environmental enrichment is associated with lone-term increases in psychophysiological orienting an d arousal in humans. Results draw attention to the important influence of t he early environment in shaping later psychophysiological functioning.