Effect of low-intensity treadmill exercise on behavioural measures and hippocampal parvalbumin immunoreactivity in the rat

•We look at treadmill running on central effects in rats.•Exercise caused a significant increase in sociality in the rat, the first time this has ever been reported.•In addition, exercise increased the number of parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons in the hippocampus, demonstrating the important effec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioural brain research 2013-11, Vol.256, p.598-601
Main Authors: Nguyen, Jason C.D., Killcross, A. Simon, Jenkins, Trisha A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anxiety
Anxiety - metabolism
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Exercise
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - metabolism
Locomotion
Male
Neurons - metabolism
Parvalbumin
Parvalbumins - metabolism
Physical Conditioning, Animal - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Running - physiology
Social Behavior
Social interaction
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:•We look at treadmill running on central effects in rats.•Exercise caused a significant increase in sociality in the rat, the first time this has ever been reported.•In addition, exercise increased the number of parvalbumin-immunoreactive neurons in the hippocampus, demonstrating the important effect of exercise on brain plasticity. Exercise has been demonstrated to have positive effects on both the body and brain. The present study aimed to determine the behavioural and morphological consequence of low-intensity running. Rats were exercised on a treadmill for a total of 30days, 30min/day. Social interaction, locomotor activity and behaviour on an elevated plus maze were assessed post-treatment. Exercised animals demonstrated more passive interaction and less time not interacting than control animals that were not exercised. Conversely, locomotor and anxiety measures showed no effect of exercise. Analysis of brains demonstrated an increase in expression of parvalbumin immunoreactive neurons in the hippocampus localised to the CA1 and CA2/3 regions. These results demonstrate that low-intensity exercise leads to changes in social behaviour as well as neuroplastic morphological changes within the hippocampus.
ISSN:0166-4328
1872-7549
DOI:10.1016/j.bbr.2013.09.004