Identification of functional molecules in the brain related to improvement of the degree of paralysis or increase of activities will contribute to establishing a new treatment strategy for stroke rehabilitation. Hence, protein expression changes in the cerebral cortex of rat groups with/without voluntary exercise using a running wheel after cerebral infarction were examined in this study. Motor...

The biological basis of voluntary exercise is complex and simultaneously controlled by peripheral (ability) and central (motivation) mechanisms. The accompanying natural reward, potential addiction, and the motivation associated with exercise are hypothesized to be regulated by multiple brain regions, neurotransmitters, peptides, and hormones. We generated a large (n = 815) advanced intercross ...

OBJECTIVE Epilepsy is the most common neurological chronic condition worldwide, affecting about 2% of world population. Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) reaches 40% of all cases of this condition, and it is highly refractory to pharmacological treatment. Physical activity has been suggested as complementary therapy for epilepsy. However, there is no consistent information whether all these effects ...

Voluntary exercise has previously been shown to enhance cognitive recovery after acquired brain injury (ABI). The present study evaluated effects of two differentially distributed protocols of delayed, voluntary exercise on cognitive recovery using an allocentric place learning task in an 8-arm radial maze. Fifty-four Wistar rats were subjected to either bilateral transection of the fimbria-for...

The mesolimbic reward pathway is implicated in stress-related psychiatric disorders and is a potential target of plasticity underlying the stress resistance produced by repeated voluntary exercise. It is unknown, however, whether rats find long-term access to running wheels rewarding, or if repeated voluntary exercise reward produces plastic changes in mesolimbic reward neurocircuitry. In the c...

PURPOSE This study investigated the time course of contractile and neural alterations of knee extensor (KE) muscles during a long-duration running exercise. METHODS Nine well-trained triathletes and endurance runners sustained 55% of their maximal aerobic velocity (MAV) on a motorized treadmill for a period of 5 h. Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), maximal voluntary activation level (%VA),...

Exercise during the inactive period can entrain locomotor activity and peripheral circadian clock rhythm in mice; however, mechanisms underlying this entrainment are yet to be elucidated. Here, we showed that the bioluminescence rhythm of peripheral clocks in PER2::LUC mice was strongly entrained by forced treadmill and forced wheel-running exercise rather than by voluntary wheel-running exerci...

Spatial cognitive impairment is common after stroke insults. Voluntary exercise could improve the impaired spatial memory. Newly generated neurons in the dentate gyrus are necessary for the acquisition of new hippocampus-dependent memories. However, it is not well known whether voluntary exercise after stroke promotes neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus, thereby promoting spatial memory rec...

We hypothesized that voluntary wheel running results in increased secretion of oxytocin, a peptide involved in the stress response. An additional hypothesis was that prolonged exercise affects oxytocin levels in the heart, which is in line with the potential role of oxytocin in cardiovascular functions. Voluntary wheel running lasted 3 weeks and daily running distances increased progressively r...