title: C57 mice increase wheel-running behavior following stress: preliminary findings.
abstract: Exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety in both humans and animals. To date, there are few, if any studies that examine the effect of stress on self-selected exercise using an animal model. This study examined the effect of acute stress on wheel-running distance in mice. Forty 8-week-old, male C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to one of three groups: no stress + wheel-running experience, stress + wheel-running experience, or stress with no wheel-running experience. Stressed mice were exposed to foot shock in a brightly lit environment. Following treatment, wheel-running distances were observed for three hours. Stress significantly increased voluntary wheel-running in mice with wheel-running experience as compared to nonstressed controls and stressed mice with no wheel-running experience. These results suggest that mice familiar with wheel-running may self-select this exercise as a modality for the mitigation of accumulated anxiety.
authors.affiliation: University of Vermont, USA. jsibold@uvm.edu
authors.forename: Jeremy S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Sibold
authors.forename: Sayamwong E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Hammack
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Falls
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009043:Motor Activity; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*