Amsterdam Neuroscience

The meeting area will be open at 15.45 hrs.
Host: Andries Kalsbeek, a.kalsbeek@nin.knaw.nl Research group: hypothalamic systems.
Abstract: Exercise can enhance protection and recovery from aversive, stressful events. I will present our work characterizing exercise-induced stress resilience in rodent models, including recent data. Demonstrating that exercise enables stress resilience more readily in female rats than males. Although exercise seems to enable stress resilience in both sexes by constraining the serotonergic response to stress, 1) how the experience of exercise is communicated to the serotonergic system, and 2) what makes females particularly responsive to exercise-induced stress resilience, are two critical unanswered questions.
I will present data suggesting that the answers to both questions arise from chronic engagement of neural circuits supporting voluntary exercise behavior. Specifically, brain regions that are required for the maintenance of voluntary physical activity are 1) directly linked to the serotonergic system, and 2) responsive to exercise in both sexes, but are more receptive to exercise in females than males. In addition to bringing us closer to understanding how exercise enables a stress resilient brain, this work exemplifies the use of exercise as a tool that can reveal novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of common stress-related mental health disorders.
Register via m.bajnath@nin.knaw.nl