FORce-Mediated Cognition by Exercise (FORCE)

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Regular aerobic exercise, such as fast walking 40 minutes per day, helps maintain cognitive health, even at late stages of life. With ageing, the volume of the hippocampus- part of the brain attributed to memory and learning, decreases. Exercise not only prevents this loss in volume, but increases the volume due to new neurons, and other brain cell. Biochemicals released by exercising muscle likely support this growth. But how they influence hippocampal cells remains a mystery. This project supports research that attempts to resolve this enigma by considering a transformative new paradigm wherein muscle contraction during exercise is transduced to contraction of hippocampal cells themselves. The results from the study may lead to reverse-engineering of pathologies, such as e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and anxiety that result in a diminished size and function of the hippocampus. The project is based on the hypothesis that exercising muscle makes hippocampal cells contractile, and that this contractility results in new neurons from brain stem cells. The hypothesis is based on preliminary findings in the PIs’ labs. The hypothesis will be tested by exercising mouse muscle tissue cultured on a petri dish. The biochemicals released by the exercising muscle tissue will be provided to mouse hippocampal cells extracted from mouse brain cultured on a dish. The effect of exercise on brain cells will be evaluated by measuring brain cell contractility and formation of new neurons on the dish. The hypothesis will also be tested in running and sedentary mice by quantifying relative expressions of brain proteins known to be responsible for cell contractility. The results of the study will be disseminated to the public through (1) exercise-brain presentations to diverse elderly populations; (2) development of a 5-part video series on exercise-brain interactions for social media; (3) Involvement of high school and undergraduate students in the exercise-brain research; and (4) presentations at the local library, campus open house, farmers market and local schools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.