Running for survival: Exercising to help slow down neurodegeneration
Location
SU-214
Start Date
1-5-2026 12:00 PM
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder that affects about 1 million Americans (Parkinson's Foundation, 2024), which manifests in symptoms that are both motor and non motors. Motor symptoms include tremors, dyskinesia, and bradykinesia. While non-motor symptoms, such as apathy, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and cognitive decline, are present earlier but not as obvious (Armstrong,M.J., & Okinawa, M.S., 2020, Schapira, A. H.V., Chauduri, K. R., & Jenner, P. 2017). The purpose of this current study is to examine the effect of exercise on non-motor symptoms in a fish model of PD. Adult zebrafish will be randomly selected and placed into control (untreated, n=10), MPTP treated no exercise (n=10), and MPTP treated exercise (n=10) groups. To induce the PD-like non-motor changes, animals will be dosed with MPTP (0.8 mM). After dosing, fish are placed back into the home tank and allowed to recover for 2 days. The testing and exercise procedures will begin on day 3 and continue through the end of the experiment (day 9), with additional MPTP dosing on days 5 and day 7. Non-motor symptoms will be characterized by examining changes in erratic swimming, exploratory behavior, and novel object inspection. I hypothesize that exercise will mitigate the effect of MPTP exposure. Results are expected to show that exercise will reduce the amount of erratic swimming in the MPTP treated fish with an increase in exploratory behavior, reflecting a reduction in anxiety. Apathy, assessed with novel object inspection, will also be reduced in the exercise condition. If successful, the study provides insight into the interaction between exercise and mental health, characterizing the possible benefits that can affect quality of life.
Faculty Sponsor
Shannon Saszik
Running for survival: Exercising to help slow down neurodegeneration
SU-214
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder that affects about 1 million Americans (Parkinson's Foundation, 2024), which manifests in symptoms that are both motor and non motors. Motor symptoms include tremors, dyskinesia, and bradykinesia. While non-motor symptoms, such as apathy, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and cognitive decline, are present earlier but not as obvious (Armstrong,M.J., & Okinawa, M.S., 2020, Schapira, A. H.V., Chauduri, K. R., & Jenner, P. 2017). The purpose of this current study is to examine the effect of exercise on non-motor symptoms in a fish model of PD. Adult zebrafish will be randomly selected and placed into control (untreated, n=10), MPTP treated no exercise (n=10), and MPTP treated exercise (n=10) groups. To induce the PD-like non-motor changes, animals will be dosed with MPTP (0.8 mM). After dosing, fish are placed back into the home tank and allowed to recover for 2 days. The testing and exercise procedures will begin on day 3 and continue through the end of the experiment (day 9), with additional MPTP dosing on days 5 and day 7. Non-motor symptoms will be characterized by examining changes in erratic swimming, exploratory behavior, and novel object inspection. I hypothesize that exercise will mitigate the effect of MPTP exposure. Results are expected to show that exercise will reduce the amount of erratic swimming in the MPTP treated fish with an increase in exploratory behavior, reflecting a reduction in anxiety. Apathy, assessed with novel object inspection, will also be reduced in the exercise condition. If successful, the study provides insight into the interaction between exercise and mental health, characterizing the possible benefits that can affect quality of life.