Exercise effects on brain and behavior in healthy mice, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease model - a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT This systematic review and meta-analysis examines how exercise modifies brain and behavior in healthy mice, dementia (D) and Parkinson disease (PD) models. A search was performed on the Medline and Scopus electronic databases (2008 to 2019). Search terms were “mice”, “brain”, “treadmill”, “exercise”, “physical exercise”. In the total, 430 were found but only 103 were included. Animals (n = 1,172; 96 articles) exercised 4-8 weeks (Range 24 h to 32 weeks), 60 min/day (Range 8 to 120 min per day), and 10/12 m/min (Range 0.2 m/min to 36 m/min). Hippocampus, cerebral cortex, striatum and whole brain were more frequently investigated. Exercise improved learning and memory. Meta-analysis showed that exercise increased: cerebral BDNF in health (n = 150; z = 5.8, CI 3.43-12.05; p