Studies that Guide Our Work

Positive Effects of Physical Activity

Åberg E, Perlmann T, Olson L, Brené S. 2008. Running increases neurogenesis without retinoic acid receptor activation in the adult mouse dentate gyrus. Hippocampus 18:785-792.

Fordyce, D. E. & Wehner, J. M. 1993. Physical activity enhances spatial learning performance with an associated alteration in hippocampal protein kinase C activity in C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice. Brain Res.619, 111–119.

Isaacs, K. R., Anderson, B. J., Alcantara, A. A., Black, J. E. & Greenough, W. T. 1992. Exercise and the brain — angiogenesis in the adult-rat cerebellum after vigorous physical activity and motor skill learning. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 12, 110–119.

Kronenberg G, Bick-Sander A, Bunk E, Wolf C, Ehninger D, Kempermann G. 2006. Physical exercise prevents age-related decline in precursor cell activity in the mouse dentate gyrus. Neurobiol Aging 27:1505–1513.

Neeper SA, Gomez-Pinilla F, Choi J, Cotman CW. 1996. Physical activity increases mRNA for brain-derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor in rat brain. Brain Res 726:49–56.

van Praag H, Shubert T, Zhao C, Gage FH. 2005. Exercise enhances learning and hippocampal neurogenesis in aged mice. J Neurosci 25:8680–8685.

van Praag, H., Christie, B.R., Sejnowski, T.J., Gage, F.H. 1999. Running enhances neurogenesis, learning, and long-term potentiation in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 96 (23), pp. 13427–13431.

van Praag H, Kempermann G, Gage FH. 1999b. Running increases cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult mouse dentate gyrus. Nat Neurosci 2:266–270.

Positive Effects of Cognitive Challenges

Bennett EL, Rosenzweig MR, Morimoto H, Hebert M. 1979. Maze training alters brain weights and cortical RDA/DNA ratios. Behav Neural Biol 26(1):1-22.

Bruel-Jungerman E, Laroche S, Rampon C. 2005. New neurons in the dentate gyrus are involved in the expression of enhanced long-term memory following environmental enrichment. Eur J Neurosci 21:513–521.

Gould E, Beylin A, Tanapat P, Reeves A, Shors TJ. 1999. Learning enhances adult neurogenesis in the hippocampal formation. Nat Neurosci 2:260 –265.

Guzowski JF, Setlow B, Wagner EK, McGaugh JL. 2001. Experience-dependent gene expression in the rat hippocampus after spatial learning: a comparison of the immediate-early genes Arc, c-fos, and Zif268. J Neurosci 21:5089 –5098.

Kempermann G, Kuhn HG, Gage FH. 1998. Experience-induced neurogenesis in the senescent dentate gyrus. J Neurosci.;18:3206-12.

Kempermann G, Kuhn HG, Gage FH. 1997. More hippocampal neurons in adult mice living in an enriched environment. Nature 386:493– 495.

Kempermann G, Brandon EP, Gage FH. 1998. Environmental stimulation of 129/SvJ mice causes increased cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus. Curr Biol 8:939 –942.

Leuner B, Mendolia-Loffredo S, Kozorovitskiy Y, Samburg D, Gould E, Shors TJ. 2004. Learning enhances the survival of new neurons beyond the time when the hippocampus is required for memory. J Neurosci 24:7477–7481.

Stranahan AM, Khalil D, Gould E. 2006. Social isolation delays the positive effects of running on adult neurogenesis. Nat Neurosci 9:526–533.

van Praag, H., Kempermann, G. & Gage, F. H. 1999. Neural consequences of environmental enrichment. Nat. Neurosci. 2, 266–270.

No Effect on Fluid Intelligence of ‘Game Training’ (offered by sites such as Lumosity)

Redick T, Shipstead Z, Harrison T, Hicks K, Fried D, Hambrick D, Kane M, Engle R.  2013.  No evidence of intelligence improvement after working memory training: a randomized, placebo-controlled study. J Exp Psychol Gen. 142(2):359-79.

Chooia W, Lee T. 2012. Working memory training does not improve intelligence in healthy young adults. Intelligence. 40(6):531–542.

Owen A, Hampshire A, Grahn J, Stenton R, Dajani S, Burns A, Howard R, Ballard C. 2010. Putting brain training to the test. Nature. 465: 775–778.

Melby-Lervåg M, Hulme C. 2013. Is working memory training effective? A meta-analytic review. Dev Psychol. 49(2):270-91.

Negative Effects of Stress

Czeh B, Michaelis T, Watanabe T, et al. 2001. Stress-induced changes in cerebral metabolites, hippocampal volume, and cell proliferation are prevented by antidepressant treatment with tianeptine. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:12796–12801.

Fuchs E, Flugge G, Ohl F, et al. 2001. Psychosocial stress, glucocorticoids, and structural alterations in the tree shrew hippocampus. Physiol Behav 73:285–291.

Lee KJ, Kim SJ, Kim SW, et al. 2006. Chronic mild stress decreases survival, but not proliferation, of new-born cells in adult rat hippocampus. Exp Mol Med 38:44–54.

McKittrick CR, Magarinos AM, Blanchard DC, et al. 2000. Chronic social stress reduces dendritic arbors in CA3 of hippocampus and decreases binding to serotonin transporter sites. Synapse 36:85–94.

Sandi, C., Woodson J., Haynes, V.F., Park, C.R., Touyarot, K., et al. 2005. Acute stress-induced impairment of spatial memory is associated with decreased expression of neural cell adhesion molecule in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Biological Psychiatry, 57 (8), pg. 856-864.

Warner-Schmidt, J. and Duman, R. 2006. Hippocampal neurogenesis: opposing effects of stress and antidepressant treatment. Hippocampus, Volume 16, Issue 3, pp. 239 – 249.

Yap JJ, Takase LF, Kochman LJ, et al. 2006. Repeated brief social defeat episodes in mice: effects on cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus. Behav Brain Res, 172:344–350.

Negative Effects of Depression

Dranovsky A, Hen R. 2006. Hippocampal neurogenesis: regulation by stress and antidepressants. Biol Psychiatry 59:1136–1143.
Harvey PO, Fossati P, Pochon JB, et al. 2005. Cognitive control and brain resources in major depression: an fMRI study using the n-back task. Neuroimage 26:860–869.

Jacobs BL. 2002. Adult brain neurogenesis and depression. Brain Behav Immun 16:602–609.

Malberg JE, Eisch AJ, Nestler EJ, et al. 2000. Chronic antidepressant treatment increases neurogenesis in adult rat hippocampus. J Neurosci 20:9104–9110.

Sapolsky RM. 2001. Depression, antidepressants, and the shrinking hippocampus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:12320–12322.

Shah PJ, Ebmeier KP, Glabus MF, et al. 1998. Cortical grey matter reductions associated with treatment-resistant chronic unipolar depression. Controlled magnetic resonance imaging study. Br J Psychiatry 172:527–532.

Sheline YI, Sanghavi M, Mintun MA, et al. 1999. Depression duration but not age predicts hippocampal volume loss in medically healthy women with recurrent major depression. J Neurosci 19:5034–5043.

Sheline YI, Wang PW, Gado MH, et al. 1996. Hippocampal atrophy in recurrent major depression. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:3908–3913.

Stockmeier CA, Mahajan GJ, Konick LC, et al. 2004. Cellular changes in the postmortem hippocampus in major depression. Biol Psychiatry 56:640–650.

Negative Effects of Drugs and Alcohol

Abrous DN, Adriani W, Montaron MF et al. 2002. Nicotine self-administration impairs hippocampal plasticity. J Neurosci 22:3656–3662.

Dominguez-Escriba L, Hernandez-Rabaza V, Soriano-Navarro M et al. 2006. Chronic cocaine exposure impairs progenitorproliferation but spares survival and maturation of neural precursors in adult rat dentate gyrus. Eur J Neurosci 24:586–594.

Eisch AJ, Barrot M, Schad CA et al. 2000. Opiates inhibit neurogenesis in the adult rat hippocampus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:7579–7584.

Hernandez-Rabaza V, Dominguez-Escriba L, Barcia JA et al. 2006. Binge administration of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine ‘‘ecstasy’’ impairs the survival of neural precursors in adult rat dentate gyrus. Neuropharmacology 51:967–973.

He J, Nixon K, Shetty AK et al. 2005. Chronic alcohol exposure reduces hippocampal neurogenesis and dendritic growth of newborn neurons. Eur J Neurosci 21:2711–2720.

Herrera DG, Yague AG, Johnsen-Soriano S et al. 2003. Selective impairment of hippocampal neurogenesis by chronic alcoholism: protective effects of an antioxidant. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:7919–7924.

Nixon K, Crews FT 2002. Binge ethanol exposure decreases neurogenesis in adult rat hippocampus. J Neurochem 83:1087–1093.
Renoir T, Saurini F, Hamon M et al. 2006. MDMA-induced long term neurogenesis dysregulation and 5-HT1A autoreceptor supersensitivity in mice. FENS Abstr 3:A165.126.

Yamaguchi M, Suzuki T, Seki T et al. 2005. Decreased cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus of rats after repeated administration of cocaine. Synapse 58:63–71.