Voluntary exercise improves performance of a discrimination task through effects on the striatal dopamine system
Abstract
We have previously demonstrated that voluntary exercise facilitates discrimination learning in a modified T-maze. There is evidence implicating the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) as the substrate for this task. The present experiments examined whether changes in DLS dopamine receptors might underlie the exercise-associated facilitation. Infusing a D1R antagonist into the DLS prior to discrimination learning facilitated the performance of nonexercising rats but not exercising rats. Infusing a D2R antagonist impaired the performance of exercising rats but not nonexercising rats. Exercise-associated facilitation of this task may rely on an exercise-induced decrease in D1R and increase in D2R activation in the DLS.
Footnotes
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↵1 Corresponding author
E-mail john.green{at}uvm.edu
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Article is online at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.034462.114.
- Received January 14, 2014.
- Accepted March 21, 2014.
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