Abstract
Aging is a progressive process leading to functional decline in many domains. Recent studies have shown that physical exercise (PE) has a positive influence on the progression of age-related functional decline, including motor and brain functions. Whole body vibration (WBV) is a form of passive stimulation by mechanical vibration platforms, which offers an alternative for PE interventions, especially for aged individuals. WBV has been demonstrated to mimic the beneficial effects of PE on the musculoskeletal system, as well on the central nervous system. However, preclinical data with aged rodents are very limited. Hence, the purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effects of a 5-week WBV intervention with an aged animal model on memory functions, anxiety-related behavior, and motor performance. The 18-month old male (N = 14) and female (N = 14) Wistar rats were divided into two groups, namely, vibration and pseudo-vibration. Animals underwent a 5-week WBV intervention protocol with low intensity (frequency of 30 Hz and amplitude of 50–200 μm) stimulation. After 5 weeks, the following cognitive and motor tests were administered: open-field, novel and spatial object recognition, grip-hanging, and balance-beam. WBV-treated rats showed a decrease in their anxiety level in the open field test compared with those in the pseudo-treated controls. In addition, WBV-treated male animals showed significantly increased rearing in the open-field test compared to their pseudo controls. Spatial memory was significantly improved by WBV treatment, whereas WBV had no effect on object memory. Regarding motor performance, both grip strength and motor coordination were improved by WBV treatment. Our results indicate that WBV seems to have comparable beneficial effects on age-related emotional, cognitive, and motor decline as what has been reported for active PE. No striking differences were found between the sexes. As such, these findings further support the idea that WBV could be considered as a useful alternative for PE in case active PE cannot be performed due to physical or mental issues.
Highlights
Aging is accompanied by an increased risk for various pathological conditions in the central nervous system such as reduced total brain volume (Salat et al, 1999) and blood flow velocity (Moreno-Torres et al, 2005), increased neurodegeneration (Sastry and Rao, 2000; Walhovd et al, 2011), or mitochondrial dysfunctions (Trifunovic and Larsson, 2008)
The results of this study showed that Whole body vibration (WBV) improved anxiety-like behavior in the open field test, spatial memory in the spatial object relocation test, and motor performance in grip hanging and balance beam tests
Vibration is typically considered as a form of low-intensity aerobic exercise and its effects on memory functions have been investigated in clinical studies where vibration seems to be beneficial to improve executive functions and other cognitive domains (Regterschot et al, 2014; den Heijer et al, 2015). Both muscle strength and motor coordination were improved by vibration treatment, and these findings indicate that vibration prevents or reverses a decline of motor performance
Summary
Aging is accompanied by an increased risk for various pathological conditions in the central nervous system such as reduced total brain volume (Salat et al, 1999) and blood flow velocity (Moreno-Torres et al, 2005), increased neurodegeneration (Sastry and Rao, 2000; Walhovd et al, 2011), or mitochondrial dysfunctions (Trifunovic and Larsson, 2008). Thereby, the aging process causes a progressive decline in cognitive functions. Aging in rodents is associated with impaired learning and memory functions in behavioral tasks such as the Morris water maze (MWM) (Gallagher et al, 2015; Gocmez et al, 2016) and novel objects recognition (NOR) tasks (Arias-Cavieres et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2017). Age-related decline in motor coordination and muscle strength is associated with the atrophy of muscle tissue, dysfunctions of muscle motor units due to failure at synaptic transmission, and hormonal changes and/or the combination of these. Several extensive reviews have summarized the most prevalent changes in aged rodents (Larsson et al, 2001; Ewa et al, 2008; Sam et al, 2014; Cho et al, 2016)
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