Neonatal Exercise Prevents Anxiety-Related Behavior and Improves Episodic Memory in Adult but not in Aged Rats

Although aerobic moderate exercise changes brain functioning to benefit cerebral health and behavior in human and animals, it is not clear how the life stage influence the effects of exercise. The neonatal period is well known as the neuronal critical period, when changes can induce long-lasting modifications on brain functioning. On the other hand, evidence also show that moderate exercise can improve memory function and prevent anxiety-like disorders. Anxiety is among the most common mental illnesses in a worldwide scale. Therefore, we investigated whether a protocol of neonatal moderate exercise affects episodic memory and anxiety-like behavior of adult (120 days old) and aged Wistar rats (585 days old). At 15 days old, Wistar rats (n=20) were equally distributed in sedentary or exercised. The treadmill exercise was performed according to Batista-de-Oliveira et al (Experimental Gerontology 47: 452–457, 2012). At adulthood and senescence: (1) we evaluated episodic memory according to Viana et al 2013 (N...