Wheel running in the wild

Wheel running in the wild

The importance of exercise for health and neurogenesis is becoming increasingly clear. Wheel running is often used in the laboratory for triggering enhanced activity levels, despite the common objection that this behaviour is an artefact of captivity and merely signifies neurosis or stereotypy. If wheel running is indeed caused by captive housing, wild mice are not expected to use a running whe...

What can be learnt from wheel-running by wild mice, and how can we identify when wheel-running is pathological?

FosB Regulates Wheel Running

FosB is a transcription factor that accumulates in a regionspecific manner in the brain after chronic perturbations. For example, repeated administration of drugs of abuse increases levels of FosB in the striatum. In the present study, we analyzed the effect of spontaneous wheel running, as a model for a natural rewarding behavior, on levels of FosB in striatal regions. Moreover, mice that indu...

Microglia—A Wrench in the Running Wheel?

Increasing the amount of physical activity has been observed to ameliorate the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), as well as enhance neurogenesis. Choi et al. in this issue of Neuron report that the expression of Presenilin 1 (PS1) variants, responsible for the early onset of familial AD, are capable of mitigating the regenerative effects associated with increased activity and environment...

What can be learnt from wheel - running by wild mice , and how can we identify when wheel - running is pathological ? Georgia