ArticleBehavioural brain research2020
Effects of repeated voluntary or forced exercise on brainstem serotonergic systems in rats.
Article in Behavioural brain research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mapping the effects of exercise on cognition and physical function: a scoping review of rodent studies.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Pooled it
- A Handful of Details to Ensure the Experimental Reproducibility on the FORCED Running Wheel in Rodents: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Pooled it
- Voluntary Running and Estrous Cycle Modulate ΔFOSB in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus of the Wistar Rat.Journal of circadian rhythms · 2025Article
- Article
- Chronic High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) exercise in adolescent rats results in cocaine place aversion and ΔFosB induction.PloS one · 2025Article
- Association of exercise and ADHD symptoms: Analysis within an adult general population sample.PloS one · 2025Article
- Aerobic exercise improves depressive symptoms in the unilateral 6-OHDA-lesioned rat model of Parkinson's disease.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2024Article
- Translational models of stress and resilience: An applied neuroscience methodology review.Neuroscience applied · 2024Review
- The Influence of Moderate Physical Activity on Brain Monoaminergic Responses to Binge-Patterned Alcohol Ingestion in Female Mice.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
- Three-Week Treadmill Exercise Enhances Persistent Inward Currents, Facilitates Dendritic Plasticity, and Upregulates the Excitability of Dorsal Raphe Serotonin Neurons in ePet-EYFP Mice.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2020Article
- Central monoaminergic systems are a site of convergence of signals conveying the experience of exercise to brain circuits involved in cognition and emotional behavior.Current zoology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Voluntary exercise increases stress resistance by modulating stress-responsive neurocircuitry, including brainstem serotonergic systems. However, it remains unknown how exercise produces adaptations to serotonergic systems. Recruitment of serotonergic systems during repeated, daily exercise could contribute to the adaptations in serotonergic systems following exercise, but whether repeated voluntary exercise recruits serotonergic systems is unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of six weeks of voluntary or forced exercise on rat brain serotonergic systems. Specifically, we analyzed c-Fos and FosB/ΔFosB as markers of acute and chronic cellular activation, respectively, in combination with tryptophan hydroxylase, a marker of serotonergic neurons, within subregions of the dorsal raphe nucleus using immunohistochemical staining. Compared to sedentary controls, rats exposed to repeated forced exercise, but not repeated voluntary exercise, displayed decreased c-Fos expression in serotonergic neurons in the rostral dorsal portion of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRD) and increased c-Fos expression in serotonergic neurons in the caudal DR (DRC), and interfascicular part of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRI) during the active phase of the diurnal activity rhythm. Similarly, increases in c-Fos expression in serotonergic neurons in the DRC, DRI, and ventral portion of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRV) were observed in rats exposed to repeated forced exercise, compared to rats exposed to repeated voluntary exercise. Six weeks of forced exercise, relative to the sedentary control condition, also increased FosB/ΔFosB expression in DRD, DRI, and DRV serotonergic neurons. While both voluntary and forced exercise increase stress resistance, these results suggest that repeated forced exercise, but not repeated voluntary exercise, increases activation of DRI serotonergic neurons, an effect that may contribute to the stress resistance effects of forced exercise. These results also suggest that mechanisms of exercise-induced stress resistance may differ depending on the controllability of the exercise.
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