![]() Richard Maddock and his team conducted MRI exams of people before and after cycling on a stationary bicycle to determine the effect of exercise on neurotransmitters. To measure glutamate and GABA, the researchers conducted a series of imaging studies using a powerful 3-tesla MRI to detect nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, which can identify several compounds based on the magnetic behavior of hydrogen atoms in molecules. Participants exercised on a stationary bicycle, reaching around 85 percent of their predicted maximum heart rate. To understand how exercise affects the brain, the team studied 38 healthy volunteers. But part of it may be that the brain has reached its limit.” “We often think of this point in terms of muscles being depleted of oxygen and energy molecules. “It is not clear what causes people to ‘hit the wall’ or get suddenly fatigued when exercising,” Maddock said. The research also hints at the negative impact sedentary lifestyles might have on brain function, along with the role the brain might play in athletic endurance. While the new findings account for a small part of the brain’s energy consumption during exercise, they are an important step toward understanding the complexity of brain metabolism. The striking change in how the brain uses fuel during exercise has largely been overlooked in brain health research. “Apparently, one of the things it’s doing is making more neurotransmitters.” How the brain uses fuel during exercise ![]() “From a metabolic standpoint, vigorous exercise is the most demanding activity the brain encounters, much more intense than calculus or chess, but nobody knows what happens with all that energy,” Maddock said. The research also helps solve a persistent question about the brain, an energy-intensive organ that consumes a lot of fuel in the form of glucose and other carbohydrates during exercise. “Our study shows that exercise activates the metabolic pathway that replenishes these neurotransmitters.” “Major depressive disorder is often characterized by depleted glutamate and GABA, which return to normal when mental health is restored,” said study lead author Richard Maddock, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Published in The Journal of Neuroscience, the finding offers new insights into brain metabolism and why exercise could become an important part of treating depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders linked with deficiencies in neurotransmitters, which drive communications between the brain cells that regulate physical and emotional health. Intense exercise increases levels of two common neurotransmitters - glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA - that are responsible for chemical messaging within the brain. ![]() People who exercise have better mental fitness, and a new imaging study from UC Davis Health System shows why. ![]()
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