Clocks Exercise and Cognition: A new approach

人们普遍认为，有规律的锻炼、良好的睡眠习惯和健康的饮食是长寿的途径。事实上，经常锻炼对大脑和身体都有好处，可以刺激新脑细胞的产生，提高我们解决问题的能力。拥有良好的睡眠和饮食习惯的关键是确保我们保持规律的睡觉时间和吃饭时间。每天睡眠和进食的规律性是因为我们的生物钟，它告诉我们什么时候醒来，什么时候吃饭，与白天的24小时变化同步。不幸的是，对于生物钟较弱的人来说，这种同步可能会出现问题，导致睡眠、清醒、饮食中断，并削弱解决问题的能力。最近，我们发现了一种新的运动效果：在一天中的特定时间安排6小时的自愿运动，恢复了生物钟减弱的小鼠的睡眠，清醒和饮酒的日常模式。这表明这些动物的生物钟功能是可能恢复的，但我们不知道这种锻炼的不同时间表是否对日常节奏有不同的恢复效果。我们将通过限制小鼠运动的时间来测试这一点。我们预测，与其他可以自由运动的小鼠相比，这些动物的益处较少。不幸的是，我们不知道有计划的锻炼是否也能刺激大脑，改善生物钟减弱的小鼠的学习和记忆。我们也不知道老年动物是否会从这种锻炼计划中受益。老年小鼠和老年人一样，生物钟也在退化，因此，它们的睡眠和休息、饮食的日常模式被打乱，学习和记忆能力下降。有规律的运动也可能增强生物钟，恢复老年小鼠的日常睡眠、清醒和进食模式。有规律的运动也可能会刺激衰老的大脑产生新的细胞，提高解决问题的能力。通过这个研究项目，我们将建立恢复大脑和身体节奏的新方法，以促进健康和长寿。

It is popularly held that the way to a long life is through regular exercise, good sleeping habits and a healthy diet. Indeed, regular exercise is beneficial for the brain and body and can stimulate the production of new brain cells and improve our problem solving abilities. A key to having good sleeping and dietary habits is to make sure that we maintain regular bed-times and meal times. Daily regularity in sleeping and feeding arises because our body clock, which tells us when to awaken and when to eat, is synchronized to the 24h changes in daylight. Unfortunately, this synchronization can go wrong in individuals with weak body clocks, resulting in disruptions in sleep, wake, eating and impaired problem solving abilities. Recently, we found a new effect of exercise: scheduling voluntary exercise for 6 hours at a particular time of day restored daily patterns in sleeping, waking, and drinking in mice with weakened body clocks. This suggests that recovery of clock function in these animals is possible, but we do not know if different schedules of this exercise have different restorative effects on daily rhythms. We will test this by limiting the amount of time that mice can spend exercising. We predict that these animals will benefits less when compared to other mice that have free access to exercise. Unfortunately, we do not know if scheduled exercise also stimulates the brain and improves learning and memory in mice with weakened body clocks. We also do not know whether aged animals would benefit from this schedule of exercise. Aged mice, like ageing humans, have deteriorating body clocks and, consequently, they have disrupted daily patterns of sleep and rest, eating and reduced learning and memory capabilities. It is possible that regular exercise may also strengthen the body clock and restore daily patterns of sleeping, waking, and eating in aged mice. It is also possible that regular exercise will stimulate the ageing brain to produce new cells and improve problem solving capabilities. Through this research project, we will establish new ways of restoring brain and body rhythms to promote good health and longevity.