Running enhances neurogenesis, learning, and long-term potentiation in mice

Henriette van Praag*†, Brian R. Christie†‡, Terrence J. Sejnowski‡§, and Fred H. Gage*¶ *Laboratory of Genetics and ‡Laboratory of Computational Neurobiology, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037; and §Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 Edited by Charles F. Stevens, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, and approved September 2, 1999 (received for review July 20, 1999) Neurogenesis is the formation of new neurons in the adult brain. New neurons are predominantly being formed in two regions of the brain 1) Subventricular zone lining the lateral ventricles and 2) Subgranular zone, part of the dendate gyrus of the hippocampus. Dendate gyrus is important for the memory function. The authors in this study were interested to know whether voluntary physical activity enhances neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity and learning. To test this, the authors subjected female mice to several tests, 1) The animals were injected with 5-bromodeoxyuridine intraperitoneally to label the dividing cells 2) Mice were trained on Morris water maze to measure spatial learning 3) To determine whether running affects synaptic plasticity, long term potentiation (LTP) was studied in the hippocampal slices. Running enhanced neurogenesis, showed by increased number of Brdu-labelled cells. Running increased learning showed by improved acquisition on the water maze task and finally running augmented dendrite gyrus LTP demonstrated by increased excitatory postsynaptic potential after administration of high-frequency stimuli. It will be more interesting to know the mechanism behind these correlated changes. -Madhan