Effect of aging on treadmill exercise induced theta power in the rat

Terry B. J. Kuo & Jia-Yi Li & Sandy Shen-Yu Hsieh & Jin-Jong Chen & Ching-Yao Tsai & Cheryl C. H. Yang AGE (2010) 32:297–308 DOI 10.1007/s11357-010-9143-y This study investigates how age effects treadmill changes in EEG and electromyogram signals. In 8 week and 60 week old Wistar rats they implanted electrodes for the occipital EEG and nuchal EMG. Then the animals were started on a treadmill training protocol. The animals were allowed to run for 30 minutes during the actual experiment. EEG and EMG were recorded 80minutes during dark period and the animals were allowed to run for 30 minutes doing 13m/min which is considered moderate exercise. They analyzed the EEG spectra in order to see if there were any differences. They found that during EEG levels during waking were lower in aged rats compared to younger rats. They also found that during exercise the older rats had less EEG activity compared to the younger rats. The most interesting thing about the EEG data is that the older rats only had an elevation in the theta power however this response was still significantly less than the younger rats. The main conclusion is that aging leads to attenuated activation of brain areas that are activate in younger rats.-MD