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1 Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
2 Iowa Cardiovascular Center and Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
3 Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jbeatty{at}life.uiuc.edu.
Recently, physical exercise has been shown to significantly alter neurochemistry, neuronal function, and increases neurogenesis in discrete brain regions. Although we have documented that physical exercise leads to molecular changes in the posterior hypothalamic area (PHA), the impact on neuronal activity is unknown. The purpose of the present study was to determine if neuronal activity in the PHA is altered by physical exercise. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were allowed free access to running wheels for a period of 10 weeks (exercised group) or no wheel access at all (non-exercised group). Single unit extracellular recordings were made in anesthetized in vivo whole animal preparations or in vitro brain slice preparations. The spontaneous firing rates of PHA neurons in exercised SHR in vivo were significantly lower (8.5 ± 1.6 Hz, n=31 neurons) compared to that of non-exercised SHR in vivo (13.7 ± 1.8 Hz, n=38 neurons; p < 0.05). In addition, PHA neurons that possessed a cardiac related rhythm in exercised SHR fired significantly lower (6.0 ± 1.8 Hz, n=11 neurons) compared to non-exercised SHR (12.1 ± 2.4 Hz, n=18 neurons; p < 0.05). Similarly, the spontaneous in vitro firing rates of PHA neurons from exercised SHR were significantly lower (3.5 ± 0.3 Hz, n=67 neurons) compared to those of non-exercised SHR (5.6 ± 0.5 Hz, n=58 neurons; p < 0.001). Both the in vivo and in vitro findings support the hypothesis that physical exercise can lower spontaneous activity of neurons in a cardiovascular regulatory region of the brain. Thus, physical exercise may alter central neural control of cardiovascular function by inducing lasting changes in neuronal activity.
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