Figure 3.

Physical exercise reduced dendritic spines elimination in barrel cortex in naive adolescent mice. (a) Schematic diagram showing treadmill exercise (Ex, 1 h per day, 12 m min⁻¹) or sedentary housing (Sed) from P23 to P30 and two-photon in vivo imaging at the beginning and the end of training. (b) Two-photon images showing the same dendritic branch of layer V pyramidal neurons in Barrel cortex, including eliminated spines (white arrowhead), newly formed spines (yellow arrowhead) and filopodia (asterisk). Scale bar, 2 μm. (c) Percentage of spine formation and elimination on P30. Data were presented as mean±s.e.m.; NS, no significant difference, **P<0.01 using Student's t-test. Refer to Supplementary Table 1 for the number of animals and spines in each group.