Clinical and neurobiological effects of aerobic endurance training in multi-episode schizophrenia patients

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder characterised by positive, negative, affective and cognitive symptoms and can be viewed as a disorder of impaired neural plasticity. Aerobic exercise has a profound impact on the plasticity of the brain of both rodents and humans such as inducing the proliferation and differentiation of neural progenitor cells of the hippocampus in mice and rats. Aerobic exercise enhances LTP and leads to a better performance in hippocampus related memory tasks, eventually by increasing metabolic and synaptic plasticity related proteins in the hippocampus. In healthy humans, regular aerobic exercise increases hippocampal volume and seems to diminish processes of ageing like brain atrophy and cognitive decline.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.