The impact of voluntary exercise on mental health in rodents: a neuroplasticity perspective.
Behavioural Brain Research. 2008-09-01; 192(1): 42-60
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2008.03.014
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Pietropaolo S(1), Sun Y, Li R, Brana C, Feldon J, Yee BK.
Author information:
(1)Laboratory of Behavioural Neurobiology, ETH Zurich, Schorenstrasse 16,
Schwerzenbach, Switzerland.
There is growing interest in the effects of voluntary wheel running activity on
brain and behaviour in laboratory rodents and their implications to humans.
Here, the major findings to date on the impact of exercise on mental health and
diseases as well as the possible underlying neurobiological mechanisms are
summarised. Several critical modulating factors on the neurobehavioural effects
of wheel running exercise are emphasized and discussed–including the amount of
wheel running, sex and strain/species differences. We also reported the outcome
of an empirical investigation of the impact of wheel running exercise on the
expression of both cognitive and non-cognitive phenotypes in a triple (3 x
Tg-AD) transgenic mouse model for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Clear sex- and
paradigm-specific effects of exercise on the genetically determined phenotypes
are illustrated, including the efficacy of wheel running activity in attenuating
the sex-specific cognitive deficits. It is concluded that the wheel running
paradigm represents a unique environmental manipulation for the investigation of
neurobehavioural plasticity in terms of gene-environment interactions relevant
to the pathogenesis and therapies of certain neuropsychiatric conditions.