Outclimbing Cognitive Decline: Age, Western Diet, Resistance Exercise, and the Brain.
Abstract
Increased age and obesity diminish motivation, perseverance, and spatial memory function. Aerobic exercise interventions have successfully rescued some of these processes. However, in older and heavier populations aerobic exercise is not as sustainable due to high risk of injury. Resistance exercise consists of physical activity where maximum oxygen consumption is not increased and has been proposed as a safe and effective intervention for this population. Here, we used touchscreen-based cognitive testing to elucidate the influence of resistance exercise on motivation and spatial memory in aged, diet-induced obese mice, using a water restriction procedure I develop in Chapter 2. Mice underwent a ladder-based resistance exercise intervention. Obese and exercised mice were significantly more motivated in the progressive ratio touchscreen test of motivation than were non-exercised obese mice. Furthermore, exercised mice performed significantly better on a test of spatial memory. These findings suggest that resistance exercise is effective at rescuing cognition in older, overweight mice.