Use it and boost it with physical and mental activity - PubMed (original) (raw)

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Use it and boost it with physical and mental activity

Donna L Korol et al. Hippocampus. 2013 Nov.

Abstract

One of the now classic tenets of neuroscience is that the brain retains a substantial amount of structural and functional plasticity throughout adulthood and old age. Enriching experiences that stimulate physical and mental activity produce robust changes in subsequent behaviors, including learning and memory, that tap a wide range of neural systems. In this article, we review evidence for cognitive priming with physical and mental exercise through a memory systems lens and present brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling as one candidate neural mechanism for experience-dependent modulation of learning and memory. We highlight our recent findings showing that priming with voluntary exercise or with spontaneous alternation, a working memory task, enhances new learning of hippocampus-sensitive place, or striatum-sensitive response tasks. Blocking BDNF signaling with infusions of a BDNF receptor inhibitor into hippocampus or striatum just before training on place or response tasks, respectively, abrogated the benefits of priming regardless of the type of priming experience. These results suggest that enhanced BDNF signaling during learning may itself produce the cognitive benefits afforded by prior physical or mental activity.

Keywords: BDNF; learning strategy; memory systems; plasticity; voluntary exercise.

Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Figures

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1.

Three weeks of exercise in adult male rats improved both place and response learning. Trials to reach criterion (upper panels) were significantly reduced for both tasks. Exercising rats showed higher percent correct (lower panels) in the second half of place training but higher percent correct in the first half of training for the response task. *P < 0.05.

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2.

Testing on a 4-arm spontaneous alternation working memory task for 20 min improved both place and response learning in male rats. Trials to reach criterion were significantly lower for rats that had alternation testing 1 h before place or response training (dark bars) than for untested control rats (gray bars). *P < 0.05.

FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 3.

Levels of mature BDNF (mBDNF) in the hippocampus (left graphs) and striatum (right graphs) following 3 weeks of exercise (A) or 20 min of spontaneous alternation testing (B). mBDNF in the hippocampus rose dramatically after alternation testing but not 3 weeks of exercise. Priming with exercise or cognitive testing substantially increased mBDNF in striatum compared to control levels. *P < 0.05.

FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 4.

Effects of pretraining K252a or vehicle control (Veh) infusions on exercise-induced enhancements in place (left panel) and response (right panel) learning. Intrahippocampal K252a fully reversed place learning enhancements seen following 3 weeks of voluntary exercise. Intrastriatal K252a in exercising rats attenuated enhancements and in sedentary (Sed) rats produced enhancements in response learning. *P < 0.05.

FIGURE 5.

FIGURE 5.

Effects of pretraining K252a or vehicle control (Veh) infusions on spontaneous alternation (SA)-induced enhancements in place (left panel) and response (right panel) learning. Compared to no testing (Con), 20 min of SA testing produced enhancements in place learning that were fully reversed by intrahippocampal K252a infusions. Intrastriatal K252a infusions also blocked the enhancements in response learning seen by SA testing. *P < 0.05.

FIGURE 6.

FIGURE 6.

A schematic of our working model for the effects of BDNF signaling through its cognate TrkB receptor. BDNF signaling that produces rapid or acute activating actions are likely to promote faster learning. Note also that downstream effects of BDNF that reflect more durable trophic actions of TrkB signaling, including increased expression of BDNF itself, may mediate or modulate the plasticity involved in priming.

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