Reversió de deficiències cognitives en un model animal de dany cerebral traumàtic: adrenalina i exercici físic

(...) the aims of the present project are: 1- to examine the time course of the evolution of the neural degeneration and of the cognitive deficits induced by traumatic brain injury in young animals; 2- to evaluate the effectiveness of different schedules of discontinuous physical exercise to revert the cognitive deficits induced by traumatic brain injury, since animal studies usually apply a continuous exercise schedules, but sometimes those schedules can hardly be applicate to humans; 3- to determine the changes in the expression of neurotrophin (brain derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF) induced by physical exercise in brain damaged animals, since it is thought that the reversion of cognitive deficits induced by physical exercise could be mediated by plastic changes in the brain; 4- to study whether EPI administration and physical exercise are able to revert the cognitive deficits induced by traumatic injury in animals (rats) that have sustained the injury at puberty; and 5- to study if physical exercise can potentiate the facilitatory effect of posttraining EPI in animals with cognitive impairments induced by brain damage. To increase the resemblance between the conditions used in our work and the usual human conditions, the animals will be raised in non impoverished environments. Traumatic brain injury will be induced by lateral fluid percussion technique (...9.