Logo image
Back
THE EFFECTS OF EXERCISE ON MALADAPTIVE FOOD SEEKING BEHAVIORS
Dissertation

THE EFFECTS OF EXERCISE ON MALADAPTIVE FOOD SEEKING BEHAVIORS

Lydia G. Bailey
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
2026
pdf
Lydia Bailey Dissertation Final
Embargoed Access, Embargo ends: 07/16/2028 CC BY-ND V4.0

Abstract

Exercise is commonly viewed as a healthy activity, known to improve body and brain health in numerous ways, but little is known about the effects of exercise when coupled with maladaptive food seeking behaviors. In models of reward seeking disorders such as eating disorders or substance use disorders, we commonly see dysregulated reward signaling within the brain in regions such as the prefrontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens, and the ventral tegmental area. Whether changes in these regions would be altered by exercise, which has been shown to reduce drug, food, and other reward seeking in various disordered reward seeking models, is not well understood. Moreover, exercise is known to have the potential to be in itself addictive, so when exercise is coupled with disordered reward seeking such as that seen in various eating disorders, it could ultimately help or harm the patient. This dissertation aims to begin unraveling how exercise may ameliorate or exacerbate the neurological changes seen in models of maladaptive food seeking. In chapter 2, I found that exercise ameliorates cravings in a model of abstinence from high-fat diet, and recovers the neurological changes within the PFC that seem to develop throughout abstinence. In chapter 3, I found that exercise coupled with severe caloric restriction following the ABA model of anorexia results in enhanced glutamatergic signaling within the nucleus accumbens shell. Taken together, these studies show that exercise may not always benefit those suffering from reward seeking disorders, especially maladaptive food seeking. The work in this dissertation contributes significantly to our understanding of the effects of exercise on the brain, and how it may have distinct effects based on context.

Metrics

1 Record Views

Details

Logo image