Improving hippocampal pattern separation and fear generalization in adults exposed to traumatic experiences with acute bouts of aerobic exercise

The mechanisms underlying the mental health benefits of aerobic exercise are not well understood. Recent research has suggested that aerobic exercise may be associated with an improvement in discriminating novel from known environmental information in two important brain structures: the hippocampus and amygdala. Adults with a history of childhood trauma show typical alterations in these two structures. We hypothesize that distinguishing known from novel information is impaired in individuals with traumatic experiences early in life, especially since they are known to more often experience new situations as threatening, even when these situations are actually neutral or safe (i.e. fear generalization). We will investigate whether aerobic exercise can improve this discriminating process in the hippocampus and amygdala in individuals exposed to CT, and whether this leads to changes in fear generalization.

Keywords:Pattern separation, Fear Generalization, Aerobic exercise

Disciplines:Biological psychiatry