Study: how a sedentary lifestyle could rewire your brain

Sitting around all day may actually change how your brain responds to stimuli.

New research in the Journal of Comparative Neurology claims to have made progress on understanding a new link between living a sedentary lifestyle and high risk of heart disease.

Authors of the study divided twelve mice into two groups: six who were put in cages with a running wheel and six who were put in cage without a wheel. Rats naturally enjoy running and will spend large portions of their day on a wheel if given the opportunity. They were left to live in their respective cages for three months.

When the rats were taken out of their cages the researchers injected them with a special dye to highlight activity in certain regions of the brain. They wanted to test if there was any difference between the two groups of rats in their rostral ventrolateral medulla, an area that controls unconscious activities in the rats, such as breathing. Humans also have the  rostral ventrolateral medulla region and it is presumed it functions in a similar way.

According to the New York Times, the rats who had not been given access to a wheel to run on had more branches connecting the neurons in their rostral ventrolateral medulla to their nervous system, meaning they were more sensitive to outside stimuli. Living for three months without a wheel had somehow caused them to become more sensitive to stimuli. The sedentary lifestyle of the rats without wheel access actually changed their brains.

The researchers suspect this may be one research the sedentary lifestyle can cause higher rates of heart disease. The extra sensitivity may cause dangerous increases in blood pressure.

The authors do note that the research is not necessarily indicative of similar results in humans, but they have reason to believe results would be similar in humans.