Acute physical exercise enhances memory persistence in female rats via hippocampal catecholaminergic receptors

Acute physical exercise (PE) is a promising non-pharmacological strategy for improving cognitive function; however, the neurochemical mechanisms underlying its effects on memory persistence remain unclear, especially in females, who are underrepresented in preclinical research. Here, we investigated whether a single session of moderate-intensity treadmill exercise enhances memory persistence in female rats and whether this effect depends on hippocampal catecholaminergic signaling. Adult female Wistar rats were trained in the novel object recognition (NOR) task and, immediately afterward, were subjected to acute PE (30 min at 60-70% of VO₂max), followed by intrahippocampal infusions of vehicle (VEH), the D1/D5 dopamine receptor antagonist SCH23390, or the β-adrenergic receptor antagonist timolol. Control groups received the same drug infusions without performing the exercise session. Memory retention was assessed 1, 7, and 14 days after the NOR training. Acute PE enhanced memory consolidation and promoted memory persistence at 7 days compared with the control group. Our findings further suggest that this effect depends on the catecholaminergic signaling, as individual memory expression was abolished by dopaminergic or noradrenergic receptor blockade as early 1 day after training. In this context, acute PE appears to facilitate memory persistence in females through hippocampal catecholaminergic mechanisms, highlighting an important role for dopamine and norepinephrine signaling in exercise-induced cognitive modulation. Moreover, the results suggest a possible temporal dependence of catecholaminergic involvement in female memory processing, with these pathways being required early during consolidation for proper memory stabilization.