The effectiveness of aerobic exercise as an antidepressant

Started July 7, 2022

Abstract or project description

Simon is broadly interested in neuronal plasticity and we narrowed that interest down into a workable research question: how effective is aerobic exercise as therapy for depression. His end goal is a review paper and therefore will be using current literature as data. He will be focused on papers that use mice as a model system and treadmill running as a form of aerobic exercise. He will be accumulating a bunch of these data papers to read and analyze. Simon will then determine whether aerobic exercise plays a therapeutic role for depression and if so, in what ways. For example, he could look at if genes specific to neurons and related to behavioral pathways are changing expression level, whether mice behavior changes positively in response to aerobic exercise, and/or if neurotransmitter (like dopamine or serotonin) levels are changing.