| Participation in physical exercise is currently fashionable. Exercise, to many, is viewed as a panacea for many physical and psychological ailments. Although much is known about the effects of exercise on the respiratory, cardiovascular, and skeletal-motor systems, studies examining the effects of exercise on mental processes are few and equivocal. Much of the equivocalness in the above studies has been attributed to methodological inadequacies. In the present study, two experiments were conducted in order to elucidate the effects of physical exercise on cognitive and emotional processes in young male rats. Experiment 1 examined whether or not a brief physical exercise intervention could facilitate learning of a water maze task, and if so, whether or not this facilitation is blocked by naloxone, thus, implicating involvement of beta-endorphin. Experiment 2 examined the effects of physical exercise on anxiety and passive-avoidance memory in young male rats. The results from Experiment 1 suggested that a relatively brief physical exercise intervention can facilitate cognitive processes in the rat; although, endorphins do not appear to be responsible for the facilitatory effect. The results from Experiment 2 suggested that a brief physical exercise intervention leads to increased levels of anxiety, as measured by fecal defecation rates, immediately following exercise engagement. Furthermore results from Experiment 2 found that brief engagement in physical exercise does not lead to improved passive-avoidance memory. Finally, a significant positive relationship was found between anxiety and the 24 hour one-trial step-through passive-avoidance memory of young male rats. |
