ArticleProgress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry2017
Prior treadmill exercise promotes resilience to vicarious trauma in rats.
Article in Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationship between physical activity and individual mental health after traumatic events: a systematic review.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2023Pooled it
- Vicarious defeat stress (VDS) is not a simple substitute for chronic social defeat stress (CSDS): a comparative study on behavioral and molecular mechanisms in both stress-induced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2026Article
- Not just a witness: Highlighting the utility of witness social defeat stress for the examination of neuroimmune-cardiovascular interactions across diverse populations.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Review
- The effects of different intensities of aerobic exercise for 8 weeks on neurogenesis, depression, and anxiety in young mice.Journal of Korean biological nursing science · 2025Article
- Mechanisms through which exercise reduces symptom severity and/or functional impairment in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Protocol for a living systematic review of human and non-human studies.Wellcome open research · 2023Article
- Potential resilience treatments for orangutans (Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2023Article
- Running from Stress: Neurobiological Mechanisms of Exercise-Induced Stress Resilience.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Pre- and Post-Endurance Training Mitigates the Rat Pilocarpine-Induced Status Epilepticus and Epileptogenesis-Associated Deleterious Consequences.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Mice Cohabiting With Familiar Conspecific in Chronic Stress Condition Exhibit Methamphetamine-Induced Locomotor Sensitization and Augmented Consolation Behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Can I Get a Witness? Using Vicarious Defeat Stress to Study Mood-Related Illnesses in Traditionally Understudied Populations.Biological psychiatry · 2020Review
- Early Life Sleep Deprivation: Role of Oxido-Inflammatory Processes.Neuroscience · 2019Article
- Protective and therapeutic effects of exercise on stress-induced memory impairment.The journal of physiological sciences : JPS · 2019Review
- RNA-Sequencing Reveals Unique Transcriptional Signatures of Running and Running-Independent Environmental Enrichment in the Adult Mouse Dentate Gyrus.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious psychological condition, which can develop both from physically experiencing and also from witnessing traumatic events. There is evidence that physical exercise can have a positive impact on the symptoms of PTSD. Relevant to this, in our previous pre-clinical work, beneficial effects of treadmill exercise were reported on PTSD-like behaviors in a social defeat paradigm, a rat model of direct physical trauma. However, the role of exercise on vicariously acquired PTSD-like phenotype was not examined.
objectiveIn this study, we utilized a rodent PTSD model, which mimics both the physical as well as the witness experience of trauma, and examined the impact of moderate treadmill exercise in mitigating vicariously acquired PTSD-like behaviors in rats.
methodsOur PTSD model is a modified social defeat paradigm, which involves aggressive encounters between a large Long-Evans male rat (resident) and a smaller Sprague-Dawley male rat (intruder), resulting in intruder social defeat. The cage mate of the intruder is positioned to witness intruder defeat. Rats were grouped as control (CON), social defeat (SD), exercise (EX), trauma witness (TW), and exercise prior to trauma witness (EX-TW). After acclimatization for 7days, the exercised groups were subjected to a daily 30-min treadmill exercise regimen for 14days. On day 21, the SD group was exposed for 7days of social defeat, while the TW groups witnessed social defeat. On days 28-34, behavioral and cognitive tests including short-term (STM) and long-term (LTM) memory function, anxiety- and depression-like behaviors were conducted.
resultsTW and SD rats demonstrated the highest levels of anxiety- and depression-like behaviors, while EX-TW rats did not exhibit anxiety- and depression-like behaviors. TW and SD rats showed no impairments in STM. However, TW and SD rats showed impairments in LTM, and exercise rescued LTM impairments in EX-TW rats.
conclusionsThis study demonstrates that rats subjected to direct experience or witness of social defeat exhibited PTSD-like behaviors, while moderate treadmill exercise prevented trauma witness-induced behavioral impairments. These studies have important translational value suggesting that prior treadmill exercise might provide resilience to stressful stimuli and perhaps mitigate the witnessing effects of traumatic events.
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