the effect of exercise (swimming and running) on motor function, learning and spatial memory in elder male wistar rats

in recent years, the effects of exercise on nervous system, spatial memory andmotor function in the senescence period have received the attention of researchers.as the age increases, some functions of nervous system such as spatial memory areweakened. thus, the effect of aerobic exercises including swimming and runningon learning, spatial memory and motor function was investigated in old rats. thestudy was experimental. 30 rats (18 months old) were randomly divided intothree groups: experimental 1 (running on a treadmill), experimental 2 (swimmingin the water maze) and control. rat treadmill was used for subjects' exercise,morris water maze device was used to apply exercise protocol and to examine theirmemory and learning and open field device was used to examine subjects' motorfunction. one-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. the resultswere reported as mean + sd and suggested that in spatial memory test (time toreach the target and the covered distance to reach the target), experimental 1group (swimming) significantly outperformed control and experimental 2 (running)groups (p=0.001). treadmill group had a better performance in spatial memorytest (time to reach the target) than control group (p=0.04). in motor function test(open field test), experimental 1 and 2 groups were significantly superior to thecontrol group in the total distance covered (p=0.001, p=0.002 respectively). in themean speed covered in the open field test, experimental 1 and 2 groups weresignificantly superior to the control group (p=0.001, p=0.003 respectively). theresults showed that aerobic exercise especially swimming had a positive effect onmemory consolidation, retention and motor function, that is, exercise probablyimproves reward paths in the nervous system of the rats and this factor can be areason for memory consolidation and learning in the nervous system.