Most people know that
regular exercise is good for your health. New research shows it may make you
smarter, too.
Neuroscientists at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, working with
mice, have discovered that a short burst of exercise directly boosts the
function of a gene that increases connections between neurons in the
hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning and memory.
The research is published online in the journal eLife.
"Exercise is cheap, and you don't necessarily need a
fancy gym membership or have to run 10 miles a day," said co-senior author
Gary Westbrook, M.D., senior scientist at the OHSU Vollum Institute and Dixon
Professor of Neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine.
Previous research in animals and in people shows that
regular exercise promotes general brain health. However, it's hard to untangle
the overall benefits of exercise to the heart, liver and muscles from the
specific effect on the brain. For example, a healthy heart oxygenates the whole
body, including the brain.
"Previous studies of exercise almost all focus on
sustained exercise," Westbrook said. "As neuroscientists, it's not
that we don't care about the benefits on the heart and muscles but we wanted to
know the brain-specific benefit of exercise."
So the scientists designed a study in mice that
specifically measured the brain's response to single bouts of exercise in
otherwise sedentary mice that were placed for short periods on running wheels.
The mice ran a few kilometers in two hours.
The study found that short-term bursts of exercise -- the
human equivalent of a weekly game of pickup basketball, or 4,000 steps --
promoted an increase in synapses in the hippocampus. Scientists made the key
discovery by analyzing genes that were increased in single neurons activated
during exercise.
One particular gene stood out: Mtss1L. This gene had been
largely ignored in prior studies in the brain.
"That was the most exciting thing," said
co-lead author Christina Chatzi, Ph.D.
The Mtss1L gene encodes a protein that causes bending of
the cell membrane. Researchers discovered that when this gene is activated by
short bursts of exercise, it promotes small growths on neurons known as
dendritic spines -- the site at which synapses form.
In effect, the study showed that an acute burst of
exercise is enough to prime the brain for learning.
In the next stage of research, scientists plan to pair
acute bouts of exercise with learning tasks to better understand the impact on
learning and memory.
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