Exercise 'sweet spot' can reverse cognitive decline, study suggests

'Exercise can improve hippocampal function, however, the amount of exercise and mechanisms mediating improvement remain largely unknown.' The active place avoidance (APA) task is a dry-arena task used to assess spatial navigation and memory in rodents. In this task, a subject is put on a rotating circular arena and avoids an invisible sector that is stable in relation to the room. Rotation of the arena means that the subject's avoidance must be active, otherwise the subject will be moved in the to-be-avoided sector by the rotation of the arena and a slight electric shock will be administered.