Can Exercise Make Us Smarter, Happier, and Have More Neurons? A Hormetic Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46799/ijssr.v3i11.586Keywords:
Exercise, Neurons, Hormetic PerspectiveAbstract
The level of intensity in a fitness regimen determines its impact: exercising can enhance intelligence, boost happiness, and increase the number of neurons. It is commonly accepted that exercise programs yield both positive and negative outcomes, depending on their intensity, among other factors, following a pattern like hormesis with a two-phase dose response. In simple terms, hormetic stress is the exact amount of stress to which our body is challenged, but we are not too tired. Therefore, your body is not weakened by lack of exposure to stress, but you are spared from the harmful side effects of toxic stress. Nevertheless, no proof has emerged thus far regarding a two-phase reaction of specific agents responsible for these exercise-induced effects. The discussions and concepts will revolve around adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) as a plausible physiological basis for the hermetic reaction to exercise in relation to its impact on cognition and mood, including the potential molecular pathways that might facilitate these effects.References
Bekinschtein, P., Oomen, C. A., Saksida, L. M., & Bussey, T. J. (2011). Effects of environmental enrichment and voluntary exercise on neurogenesis, learning and memory, and pattern separation: BDNF as a critical variable? Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, 22(5), 536–542.
Calabrese, E. J., Bachmann, K. A., Bailer, A. J., Bolger, P. M., Borak, J., Cai, L., Cedergreen, N., Cherian, M. G., Chiueh, C. C., & Clarkson, T. W. (2007). Biological stress response terminology: integrating the concepts of adaptive response and preconditioning stress within a hormetic dose–response framework. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 222(1), 122–128.
Chen, C., & Tonegawa, S. (1997). Molecular genetic analysis of synaptic plasticity, activity-dependent neural development, learning, and memory in the mammalian brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 20(1), 157–184.
Delhanty, P. J., & Han, V. K. (1993). The expression of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-binding protein-2 and IGF-II genes in the tissues of the developing ovine fetus. Endocrinology, 132(1), 41–52.
Dishman, R. K., Berthoud, H., Booth, F. W., Cotman, C. W., Edgerton, V. R., Fleshner, M. R., Gandevia, S. C., Gomez?Pinilla, F., Greenwood, B. N., & Hillman, C. H. (2006). Neurobiology of exercise. Obesity, 14(3), 345–356.
Eliakim, A., Nemet, D., Zaldivar, F., McMurray, R. G., Culler, F. L., Galassetti, P., & Cooper, D. M. (2006). Reduced exercise-associated response of the GH-IGF-I axis and catecholamines in obese children and adolescents. Journal of Applied Physiology, 100(5), 1630–1637.
García-Capdevila, S., Portell-Cortés, I., Torras-Garcia, M., Coll-Andreu, M., & Costa-Miserachs, D. (2009). Effects of long-term voluntary exercise on learning and memory processes: dependency of the task and level of exercise. Behavioural Brain Research, 202(2), 162–170.
Gomez-Pinilla, F., & Hillman, C. (2013). The influence of exercise on cognitive abilities. Comprehensive Physiology, 3(1), 403.
Gould, E., & Tanapat, P. (1999). Stress and hippocampal neurogenesis. Biological Psychiatry, 46(11), 1472–1479.
Holmes, M. M., Galea, L. A. M., Mistlberger, R. E., & Kempermann, G. (2004). Adult hippocampal neurogenesis and voluntary running activity: Circadian and dose?dependent effects. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 76(2), 216–222.
Hornsby, A. K. E., Redhead, Y. T., Rees, D. J., Ratcliff, M. S. G., Reichenbach, A., Wells, T., Francis, L., Amstalden, K., Andrews, Z. B., & Davies, J. S. (2016). Short-term calorie restriction enhances adult hippocampal neurogenesis and remote fear memory in a Ghsr-dependent manner. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 63, 198–207.
Johnston, B. M., Mallard, E. C., Williams, C. E., & Gluckman, P. D. (1996). Insulin-like growth factor-1 is a potent neuronal rescue agent after hypoxic-ischemic injury in fetal lambs. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 97(2), 300–308.
Jun, H., Mohammed Qasim Hussaini, S., Rigby, M. J., & Jang, M.-H. (2012). Functional role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis as a therapeutic strategy for mental disorders. Neural Plasticity, 2012.
Kim, T.-K., Park, J.-Y., & Han, P.-L. (2015). Physiological parameters in the blood of a murine stress-induced depression model before and after repeated passive exercise. Endocrinology and Metabolism, 30(3), 371–380.
Kraemer, W. J., Aguilera, B. A., Terada, M., Newton, R. U., Lynch, J. M., Rosendaal, G., McBride, J. M., Gordon, S. E., & Hakkinen, K. (1995). Responses of IGF-I to endogenous increases in growth hormone after heavy-resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 79(4), 1310–1315.
Kronenberg, G., Bick-Sander, A., Bunk, E., Wolf, C., Ehninger, D., & Kempermann, G. (2006). Physical exercise prevents age-related decline in precursor cell activity in the mouse dentate gyrus. Neurobiology of Aging, 27(10), 1505–1513.
Leuner, B., Caponiti, J. M., & Gould, E. (2012). Oxytocin stimulates adult neurogenesis even under conditions of stress and elevated glucocorticoids. Hippocampus, 22(4), 861–868.
Llorens-Martín, M., Torres-Alemán, I., & Trejo, J. L. (2008). Growth factors as mediators of exercise actions on the brain. Neuromolecular Medicine, 10, 99–107.
Lou, S., Liu, J., Chang, H., & Chen, P. (2008). Hippocampal neurogenesis and gene expression depend on exercise intensity in juvenile rats. Brain Research, 1210, 48–55.
Lucas, S. J. E., Cotter, J. D., Brassard, P., & Bailey, D. M. (2015). High-intensity interval exercise and cerebrovascular health: curiosity, cause, and consequence. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, 35(6), 902–911.
Mattson, M. P. (2012). Evolutionary aspects of human exercise—born to run purposefully. Ageing Research Reviews, 11(3), 347–352.
Meng, H., Zhang, Z., Zhang, R., Liu, X., Wang, L., Robin, A. M., & Chopp, M. (2006). Biphasic effects of exogenous VEGF on VEGF expression of adult neural progenitors. Neuroscience Letters, 393(2–3), 97–101.
Nikolaidis, M. G., Kerksick, C. M., Lamprecht, M., & McAnulty, S. R. (2012). Redox biology of exercise. In Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (Vol. 2012). Hindawi.
Ogonovszky, H., Berkes, I., Kumagai, S., Kaneko, T., Tahara, S., Goto, S., & Radák, Z. (2005). The effects of moderate-, strenuous-and over-training on oxidative stress markers, DNA repair, and memory, in rat brain. Neurochemistry International, 46(8), 635–640.
Olson, A. K., Eadie, B. D., Ernst, C., & Christie, B. R. (2006). Environmental enrichment and voluntary exercise massively increase neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus via dissociable pathways. Hippocampus, 16(3), 250–260.
Opendak, M., & Gould, E. (2015). Adult neurogenesis: a substrate for experience-dependent change. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(3), 151–161.
Peake, J. M., Markworth, J. F., Nosaka, K., Raastad, T., Wadley, G. D., & Coffey, V. G. (2015). Modulating exercise-induced hormesis: Does less equal more? Journal of Applied Physiology.
Radak, Z., Chung, H. Y., Koltai, E., Taylor, A. W., & Goto, S. (2008). Exercise, oxidative stress and hormesis. Ageing Research Reviews, 7(1), 34–42.
Rothmann, S., & Cooper, C. L. (2015). Work and organizational psychology. Routledge.
Saaltink, D.-J., & Vreugdenhil, E. (2014). Stress, glucocorticoid receptors, and adult neurogenesis: a balance between excitation and inhibition? Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 71, 2499–2515.
Silverman, M. N., & Deuster, P. A. (2014). Biological mechanisms underlying the role of physical fitness in health and resilience. Interface Focus, 4(5), 20140040.
Tomporowski, P. D. (2003). Effects of acute bouts of exercise on cognition. Acta Psychologica, 112(3), 297–324.
Vatsyayan, R., Lelsani, P. C. R., Chaudhary, P., Kumar, S., Awasthi, S., & Awasthi, Y. C. (2012). The expression and function of vascular endothelial growth factor in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells is regulated by 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) and glutathione S-transferaseA4-4. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 417(1), 346–351.
Wang, J. M. (2014). Allopregnanolone and neurogenesis in the nigrostriatal tract. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, 8, 224.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Roy Ardian
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.