title: Use it and boost it with physical and mental activity.
abstract: One of the now classic tenets of neuroscience is that the brain retains a substantial amount of structural and functional plasticity throughout adulthood and old age. Enriching experiences that stimulate physical and mental activity produce robust changes in subsequent behaviors, including learning and memory, that tap a wide range of neural systems. In this article, we review evidence for cognitive priming with physical and mental exercise through a memory systems lens and present brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling as one candidate neural mechanism for experience-dependent modulation of learning and memory. We highlight our recent findings showing that priming with voluntary exercise or with spontaneous alternation, a working memory task, enhances new learning of hippocampus-sensitive place, or striatum-sensitive response tasks. Blocking BDNF signaling with infusions of a BDNF receptor inhibitor into hippocampus or striatum just before training on place or response tasks, respectively, abrogated the benefits of priming regardless of the type of priming experience. These results suggest that enhanced BDNF signaling during learning may itself produce the cognitive benefits afforded by prior physical or mental activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
authors.forename: Donna L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Korol
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.forename: Claire J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Scavuzzo
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000502:physiology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D049490:Systems Biology
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
keywords: BDNF; learning strategy; memory systems; plasticity; voluntary exercise