Table 1.

Running Distance in meters per day and BDNF protein/mRNA for studies included for comparison.

Study	Subjects (n)	Running Distance (m/day)	Other Manipulations	Dose-Response: BDNF mRNA/protein Expression in brain region (methods)
Adlard, Perreau, & Cotman (2004)	Male; C57 B16 mice; age range 2 mos. to 24 mos. (n=5/age/condition)	7 to 28 days of running; range: Young = 5000m – 10,000m, Middle-age = 1800m – 4800m, Old = 2400m – 3800m	None	Hippocampal protein (ELISA), young group (2 mos.), 7 days only: r = 0.959 (n=5); 95% CI: 0.499 to 0.997
Bjornebekk, Mathe, & Brene (2005)	Male; FSL and FRL rats; age not reported (n=8/strain/conditio n)	35 days of running; range: FSL = 1600m – 2600m, FR = 2500m – 5600m	Forced swim test & BrdU administration	mRNA expression in DG (in situ hybridization), last week of running: r = 0.69 (n =14); 95% CI: 0.252 to 0.893
Johnson & Mitchell (2003)	Male; 4 strains; age range 7–8 weeks; BN, DA, PVG, & SD (n = 8/strain/condition, 4 groups)	Voluntary; 1 and 7 night time points; Running distance: no distance differences among strains at 1 night (range ~750m to 1500m, including SE), strain differences found after 7 nights – PVG: 1000m to 7000m, DA: 500 to 3000m, SD: 500 to 1500m, BN: 2500 to 2200m	None	Hippocampal protein (ELISA) among all strains, 7 nights only p<0.001 r = .53 (n=32); 95% CI: 0.393 to 0.644, similar slopes between strains
Griesbach, Hovda, Molteni, Wu, & Gomez-Pinilla (2004)	Male; SD rats; age not reported (n=6–10/condition)	7 days of running; acute and DSham-RW groups range: 500m – 3400m, acute FPI-RW range: 250m – 2100m, DFPI-RW range: 800m – 2300m	FPI vs. Sham & Water maze training	Hippocampal protein (ELISA); DSham-RW: r = 0.872 (n = 15), 95% CI: 0.65 to 0.956; DFPI-RW: r = 0.555 (n =8) (ipsilateral) (n = 8), 95% CI: −0.245 to 0.905, and r = 0.621 (contralateral), 95% CI = −0.148 to 0.922
Oliff, Berchtold, Isackson, & Cotman (1998)	Male; Fisher-344 Rats; age range 3–4 mos. (n=7–8/condition)	6 or 12 hrs of running following 3 day activity wheel training period and 10 day activity cessation period; distance not reported	None	mRNA expression in Hilus, DG, CA1, and CA3 (in situ hybridization), total distance for 6 h running: (Hilus) r = 0.866, (CA1) r = 0.894, (CA3) r = 0.704, (DG) not significant (n = 7); 95% CI: (Hilus) 0.325 to 0.979, (CA1) 0.432 to 0.984, (CA3) −0.104 to 0.952
Griesbach, Hovda, Gomez-Pinilla, & Sutton (2008)	Male; SD rats; age not reported (n=6/condition)	7 days of running; Sham-S-Amphetamine RW and Sham-AMPH-RW groups range = 1000m– 1800m, CCI-S-RW and CCI-AMPH-RW groups range = 20m to 1250m	CCI vs. Sham; RW: r = 0.74 (n = 6), 95% CI: −0.179 (AMPH) vs. Saline (S)	Hippocampal protein (ELISA); Sham-S- to 0.969; Sham-AMPH-RW: r = 0.47 (n = 6). 95% CI: −0.552 to 0.927
Johnson, Rhodes, Jeffrey, Garland, & Mitchell (2003)	Male; gen. 25 mice selectively bred for high voluntary running wheel behavior; age 8 weeks (n=8–16/condition)	1 or 7 nights of running; S mice range = 2900m – 8600m, C mice range = 1000m – 3400m	None	Hippocampal protein (ELISA), combined C and S mice (n = 64): p < 0.05, r-value estimated as .30 assuming a p-value between .05 and .01.

Abbreviations for animals correspond to the following strain/treatment groups identifiers: FSL – Flinders Sensitive Line; FRL – Flinders Resistant Line; BN –Brown Norway; DA – Dark Agouti; SD – Sprague Dawley; DSham-RW – delayed sham-surgery, running wheel assignment; FPI-RW – fluid percussion injury, running wheel assignment; DFPI-RW – delayed fluid percussion injury, running wheel assignment; Sham-S-RW – sham surgery saline administration running wheel assignment; Sham-AMPH-RW – sham surgery amphetamine administration running wheel assignment; CCI-S-RW – controlled cortical impact, saline administration, running wheel assignment; CCI-AMPH-RW – controlled cortical impact, amphetamine administration, running wheel assignment; S mice – high voluntary runners; C mice – control