the effect of high-intensity interval training with and without caloric restriction on spatial learning and long-term memory of obese rats

Background: increasing fat mass in the body reduces long-term memory (ltm) and spatial learning (sl). objectives: the purpose of this study was to compare the effects of high-intensity interval training (hiit) with and without caloric restriction (cr) on sl and ltm of obese rats. methods: forty male sprague dawley rats were subjected to a high-fat diet (hfd) for 12 weeks. after confirmation of obesity, they were divided into four groups of 10 subjects, including (1) training (t), (2) training + caloric restriction (t+cr), (3) cr, and (4) obese control (oc). also, to assess the effect of obesity on the research variables, 10 rats were considered the standard control (sc) group. for 8 weeks, the rats in groups 1 and 2 performed hiit three times per week at an intensity of 80% to 95% of vo2max, and groups 2 and 3 received cr of 60%. results: ltm and sl were significantly decreased by obesity (p = 0.001); t, cr and t + cr had a significant effect on ltm (p = 0.001); t and t + cr caused a significant increase in sl (p = 0.001). however, the cr did not have a significant effect on sl (p = 0.069). conclusions: it seems that hiit, and somewhat the cr, by itself has contributed to the improvement of the cognitive impairment of obesity. also, the interaction of t and cr was effective in improving these disorders, but its effect was not more intense than each one alone.