ArticleBehavioural brain research2016
Voluntary exercise facilitates pair-bonding in male prairie voles.
Article in Behavioural brain research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review: pain, cognition, and cardioprotection-unpacking oxytocin's contributions in a sport context.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Pooled it
- Voluntary exercise is a moderately effective mitigator of chronic social isolation stress in two female rodent models.Physiology & behavior · 2025Article
- Effects of treadmill exercise on anxiety-like behavior in association with changes in estrogen receptors ERα, ERβ and oxytocin of C57BL/6J female mice.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2021Article
- Rewritable fidelity: How repeated pairings and age influence subsequent pair-bond formation in male prairie voles.Hormones and behavior · 2019Article
- Behavioral and epigenetic consequences of oxytocin treatment at birth.Science advances · 2019Article
- Wheel access has opposing effects on stress physiology depending on social environment in female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster).Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin have been implicated in exercise, as well as monogamy and parental behavior. In this study, we compared behavioral and neuroendocrine effects of access to an exercise wheel vs. the sedentary state typical in lab animal housing. Male prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) were studied because of their extensive repertoire of social behaviors including pair bond formation and biparental care, which are influenced by oxytocin and vasopressin. Subjects in one group had access to a running wheel in their cage (wheel), and voluntarily ran approximately 1.5 km/day for six weeks; these animals were compared to males in standard housing conditions (n=10/group). Males allowed to exercise formed partner preferences significantly faster than controls and exhibited fewer oxytocin neurons, as measured by immunohistochemistry in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. We observed no differences in terms of anxiety-related behavior, or alloparental responsiveness. Males with a running wheel equipped cage gained more total body weight, and by the end of the six weeks were found to have less subcutaneous fat and larger testes as a percentage of bodyweight. The changes to gonadal regulation and pair-bonding behavior associated with voluntary exercise are discussed in terms of their possible relevance to the natural history of this species.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.