The Effect of Synchronized Running Activity with Chronic Stress on Passive Avoidance Learning and Body Weight in Rats

Impairment and physical activity influence learning and memoryenhancement. in this research, we investigated the effect of synchronizedrunning activity with stress on acquisition and retention time of passiveavoidance test.methods: male wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups asfollows: control (co), sham (sh), exercise (ex), stress (st), synchronizedexercise with stress (st and ex) groups. chronic restraint stress wasapplied by 6 h/day for 21 days and treadmill running 1 h/day for 21 days.for evaluation of learning and memory, initial and step?through latencywere determined at the end of study by using passive avoidance learningtest.results: our results showed that: (1) exercise under no stress providesbeneficial effects on memory acquisition and retention time comparedto control group; especially retention time had significantly (p < 0.05)increased in exercised group. (2) chronic stress with and withoutsynchronized exercise significantly (p < 0.01, p < 0.05, respectively)impaired acquisition and retention time. (3) body weight differenceswere significantly (p < 0.01, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001) lower than controlgroup in exercise, stress and synchronized exercise with stress groups,respectively. (4) adverse effects of restraint stress (psychical stress) wereprobably greater than physical activity effects on learning, memory andweight loss.conclusions: the data confirmed that synchronized exercise withstress had not significantly protective role in improvement of passiveavoidance acquisition and retention time; hence it did not significantlyimprove learning and memory deficit in stressed rats; whereas exercisealone could improve memory deficit in rats.