The role of voluntary exercise in enriched rearing: A behavioral analysis (original) (raw)
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Forced mild physical training-induced effects on cognitive and locomotory behavior in old mice
The journal of nutrition, health & aging
To assess the effect of mild forced physical training on cognitive and locomotory behavior in old (26 mo.) mice. Randomized, controlled study. Open-field in the behavioral laboratory. Sixteen old sedentary male mice randomly assigned to one of two groups, exercise (E) or rest (R). group E underwent treadmill running for one month at moderate intensity (belt speed=8 m/min, 45 min, five days a week), group R was only allowed spontaneous locomotor activity. exploratory and locomotor behavior were evaluated in an enriched environment (Ethovision recording). motor patterns were significantly reduced (chi2 test, p<0.05) in the E vs R group after one month of training; exploratory patterns were not different, both groups showing modest exploratory activity. mild forced physical training initiated at old age may have detrimental effect on motor behavior in male mice without improving cognitive parameters.
Learning & behavior, 2015
The effects of early environmental enrichment (EE) and voluntary wheel running on the preference for using a landmark or pool geometry when solving a simple spatial task in adult male and female rats were assessed. After weaning, rats were housed in same-sex pairs in enriched or standard cages (EE and control groups) for two and a half months. Then the rats were trained in a triangular-shaped pool to find a hidden platform whose location was defined in terms of these two sources of information, a landmark outside the pool and a particular corner of the pool. As expected, enriched rats reached the platform faster than control animals, and males and females did not differ. Enriched rats also performed better on subsequent test trials without the platform with the cues individually presented (either pool geometry or landmark). However, on a preference test without the platform, a clear sex difference was found: Females spent more time in an area of the pool that corresponded to the lan...