Behavioural brain research
-
Comparative Study
Intermittent intense exercise protects against cognitive decline in a similar manner to moderate exercise in chronically stressed mice.
It is well known that regular low or mild exercise helps to improve and maintain cognition. On the other hand, ever thought many people prefer high-intensity exercise (e.g., running, swimming, biking, soccer, basketball, etc.) to get rid of stress or improve their health, the previous studies reported that intense exercise either impairs cognition or has no effect on cognitive function. However, we previously showed that intermittent intense exercise prevents stress-induced depressive behavior in mice in a similar manner to moderate exercise. ⋯ Chronic stress decreased cognition, and newborn cell survival and blood vessel density in the hippocampus. However, both regular intense and moderate exercise prevented decrease of cognition, improved newborn cell survival and blood vessel density. These findings suggest that intermittent intense exercise may protect against decrease of cognition in a similar manner to moderate exercise and that both exercise-induced protection of decrease of cognition is closely related to newborn cell survival and angiogenesis in the hippocampus.