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Exercise feels good, but does it benefit the brain physiologically? In this study series, researchers examined neuroprotective genes in the hippocampus in sedentary mice and in mice placed in cages with running wheels.
By 1 week, exercising mice ran 10 km per night (probably the equivalent of nightly human marathons); exercise induced 33 hippocampal genes. Some genes (e.g., for the brain-derived neurotropic factor [BDNF] receptor) were involved in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. By stimulating the MAPK pathway through exercise, researchers induced genes for VGF, a neuropeptide precursor involved in energy balance, and neuritin, a neuroplasticity gene. Compared with sedentary mice, exercising mice had increases …