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Arch Iran Med. 2017;20(12): 740-745.
PMID: 29664313
Scopus ID: 85044258848
  Abstract View: 2966
  PDF Download: 1661

Original Article

Voluntary Wheel Running Induces Exercise-Seeking Behavior in Male Rats: A Behavioral Study

Mojtaba Naghshvarian 1, Mohammad-Reza Zarrindast 1,2*, Seyedeh Fatemeh Sajjadi 3

1 Department of Neuroscience and Addiction Studies, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Pharmacology School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
*Corresponding Author: Corresponding Author: Mohammad-Reza Zarrindast, PhD; Cell Phone: +98-917-113-2533, Emails: naghshvarian@sums.ac.ir, Fatemeh.sajjadi@postgrad. otago.ac.nz, Email:

Abstract

Background: Research evidence shows that exercise is associated with positive physical and mental health. Moreover, exercise and wheel running in rats activate overlapping neural systems and reward system. The most commonly used models for the study of rewarding and aversive effects of exercise involve using treadmill and wheel running paradigms in mice or rats. The purpose of our experiment was to study the influence of continuous voluntary exercise on exercise-seeking behavior.

Methods: In this experimental study, we used 24 adult male Sprague–Dawley rats weighing 275–300 g on average. Rats were divided into 3 experimental groups for 4 weeks of voluntary wheel running. Each rat ran in the cage equipped with a wheel during 24 hours. A within-subject repeated measure design was employed to evaluate the trend of running and running rates.

Results: We found that time and higher levels of exercise will increase exercise tendency. Our results also show that the interaction of exercise within 4 weeks and different levels of exercise can significantly promote rats’ exercise-seeking behavior (F = 5.440; df = 2.08; P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our data suggest that voluntary wheel running can increase the likelihood of extreme and obsessive exercising which is a form of non-drug addiction.


Cite this article as: Naghshvarian M, Zarrindast MR, Sajjadi SF. Voluntary wheel running induces exercise-seeking behavior in male rats: a behavioral study. Arch Iran Med. 2017;20(12):740–745.
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Submitted: 10 Dec 2016
Accepted: 04 Oct 2017
ePublished: 01 Dec 2017
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