Effect of exercise on visual cognitive function and its brain mechanism

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Physical exercise has been reported to improve several kinds of cognitive function in human and rodents, but the underlying neuronal mechanisms remain unknown. Since the levels of cortical neuromodulators are increased during exercise, it is possible that the effect of exercise on cognitive function is mediated via the neuromodulators. To examine the possibility, I tested the effect of acetylcholine (ACh) on the visual response of neurons in the early visual cortex (V1) of monkey and rat. The present results are summarized as follows:1) in monkey V1, ACh dominantly facilitated the visual responses2) in rat V1, ACh caused response facilitation and suppression with approximately the same frequency3) ACh caused a response gain control, by which the amplitude of contrast-response function but not the shape was changed4) muscarinic ACh receptors were responsible for the ACh’s effect5) ACh predominantly suppressed layers 2/3 neurons but facilitated layer 5 neurons, which projects to the higher order visual area and to subcortical areas, respectively.The present study suggests that ACh more distinctly and finely controls visual information processing than previously thought.