Figure 1

Effects of diet and exercise on body weight, anxiety, and cognitive behavior. (A) HFD-fed mice were significantly heavier starting at 4 weeks of treatment (ND vs HFD) while exercised mice weighed significantly less at 5 weeks of treatment for ND groups (ND vs ND + exercise, *p < 0.05) and at 8 weeks of treatment for HFD groups (HFD vs HFD + exercise, * p < 0.05). HFD-fed mice were more anxious as measured in the Light/Dark exploration assay for both percentage of time spent in the lit compartment (B) and distance traveled while in the lit compartment (C). Exercised mice had enhanced learning and memory measured in the contextual fear conditioning assay (D). Body weight analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA with post-hoc t-test and significance defined as p < 0.05. Behavioral data was analyzed by two-way ANOVA with post-hoc Fisher’s LSD with significance indicated as *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001. All data presented as mean +/- SEM from n=10/group.