neurodudes

Social isolation delays the positive effects of running on adult neurogenesis – Nature Neuroscience

From the Apr 9, Nature Neurosci:

Social isolation delays the positive effects of running on adult neurogenesis
Alexis M Stranahan, David Khalil & Elizabeth Gould

Social isolation can exacerbate the negative consequences of stress and increase the risk of developing psychopathology. However, the influence of living alone on experiences generally considered to be beneficial to the brain, such as physical exercise, remains unknown. We report here that individual housing precludes the positive influence of short-term running on adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus of rats and, in the presence of additional stress, suppresses the generation of new neurons. Individual housing also influenced corticosterone levels—runners in both housing conditions had elevated corticosterone during the active phase, but individually housed runners had higher levels of this hormone in response to stress. Moreover, lowering corticosterone levels converted the influence of short-term running on neurogenesis in individually housed rats from negative to positive. These results suggest that, in the absence of social interaction, a normally beneficial experience can exert a potentially deleterious influence on the brain.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 4:18 pm by Neville Sanjana and is filed under At the scale of systems and functions, Neural development, Neural regeneration/neurogenesis, Neuropharmacology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.