Figure 3
Effect of hormones on physical activity and cognitive skills. a) Voluntary running wheel performance shows the physical activity and desire to perform exercise. Revolutions per hour reflect the average physical activity of the animals. AI treatment showed reduced voluntary physical activity whereas E + P + T treatment showed significantly increased desire towards physical activity. E + P (100/6), E + P (Estrus) and E + P (Menstrual) groups also showed significantly improved physical activity compared to AI treated group. b) Cognitive function or spatial learning memory of the mice was tested using Morris water maze. All group mice showed similar cognitive ability during initial training. After training, mice in AI treatment group showed least improvement and E + P + T group mice showed better cognitive function than other groups. Since, all 5, 10 and 15-month time points showed similar trend, 10-month time point was taken as a representative result. All values are expressed as Mean ± SD and p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. *- represents significant difference between AI treatment and other hormone treatments, #- represents significant difference between ovariectomized control and AI treatment.