Exercising the brain: a behavioural, electrophysiological and immunohistochemical analysis of the effects of exercise in the brain

越来越明显的是，身体和精神锻炼对我们的大脑都有很多好处；对动物和人类的认知过程都有积极影响。这些好处在形态和功能上最明显的一个大脑区域是海马状体的齿状回，这是一个已知与学习和记忆有关的结构。我们最近的研究表明，运动可以促进成人齿状回的细胞增殖和神经发生，在大多数大脑发育停止后很长一段时间内，运动可以增加该区域细胞的周转量。此外，锻炼对现有的神经元也有好处，增加树突的长度和复杂性，以及用于建立神经元间通信的突触的数量。在功能上，运动动物的海马能够表现出更多的突触效能的长期增强（LTP）。这是哺乳动物大脑中学习和记忆过程发生的主要细胞模型，以及与之对应的长期抑郁（LTD），为神经元改变彼此交流的方式提供了一种机制。人们认为，这种改变对于建立神经元信号的变化是必要的，而神经元信号的变化被认为是在学习过程中发生的。到目前为止，有证据表明，运动使海马体更有活力，而不参与运动的动物的海马体在形态和功能上都更受限制和静止。

It is becoming increasingly apparent that both physical and mental exercise can have a number of benefits for our brains; positively impacting cognitive processing in both animals and humans. One area of the brain where these benefits are most apparent morphologically, as well as functionally, is the dentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation, a structure known to be involved in learning and memory. We have recently shown that exercise can promote both cellular proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus, increasing the turnover of cells in this region long after most brain development has ceased. In addition, exercise also has benefits for existing neurons, increasing both the length and complexity of their dendrites, as well as the number of synapses available for establishing inter-neuronal communication. Functionally, the hippocampus of animals that exercise is capable of exhibiting more long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic efficacy. This the main cellular model for how learning and memory processes could occur in the mammalian brain, and along with it's counterpart, long-term depression (LTD), provide a mechanism for neurons to alter the way that they communicate with one another. It is believed that such alterations are necessary to establish the changes in neuronal signaling that are thought to occur with learning. Thus far, the evidence indicates that exercise makes for a more dynamic hippocampus, while animals that do not engage in exercise have a hippocampus that is both morphologically and functionally more restricted and static.