TY - JOUR
T1 - Social isolation delays the positive effects of running on adult neurogenesis
AU - Stranahan, Alexis M.
AU - Khalil, David
AU - Gould, Elizabeth
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the assistance of C. Gross, Y. Kozorovitskiy, B. Leuner and C. Mirescu in the preparation of this manuscript. This work was supported by a National Research Service Award predoctoral fellowship to A.S. and a National Institutes of Mental Health grant to E.G.
PY - 2006/4
Y1 - 2006/4
N2 - Social isolation can exacerbate the negative consequences of stress and increase the risk of developing psychopathology. However, the influence of living alone on experiences generally considered to be beneficial to the brain, such as physical exercise, remains unknown. We report here that individual housing precludes the positive influence of short-term running on adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus of rats and, in the presence of additional stress, suppresses the generation of new neurons. Individual housing also influenced corticosterone levels - runners in both housing conditions had elevated corticosterone during the active phase, but individually housed runners had higher levels of this hormone in response to stress. Moreover, lowering corticosterone levels converted the influence of short-term running on neurogenesis in individually housed rats from negative to positive. These results suggest that, in the absence of social interaction, a normally beneficial experience can exert a potentially deleterious influence on the brain.
AB - Social isolation can exacerbate the negative consequences of stress and increase the risk of developing psychopathology. However, the influence of living alone on experiences generally considered to be beneficial to the brain, such as physical exercise, remains unknown. We report here that individual housing precludes the positive influence of short-term running on adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus of rats and, in the presence of additional stress, suppresses the generation of new neurons. Individual housing also influenced corticosterone levels - runners in both housing conditions had elevated corticosterone during the active phase, but individually housed runners had higher levels of this hormone in response to stress. Moreover, lowering corticosterone levels converted the influence of short-term running on neurogenesis in individually housed rats from negative to positive. These results suggest that, in the absence of social interaction, a normally beneficial experience can exert a potentially deleterious influence on the brain.
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U2 - 10.1038/nn1668
DO - 10.1038/nn1668
M3 - Article
C2 - 16531997
AN - SCOPUS:33645357517
SN - 1097-6256
VL - 9
SP - 526
EP - 533
JO - Nature neuroscience
JF - Nature neuroscience
IS - 4
ER -