Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Memory Joggers
10 July 2014

Memory Joggers

The saying "healthy in mind, healthy in body" is remarkably true. We know that exercise stimulates new nerve cells, or neurons, to grow in the hippocampus – a part of the brain that deals with learning, memory and mood. To find out how this happens, scientists studied these fledgling neurons in two groups of mice – one that had undergone exercise and one that hadn’t. They found that the neurons of mice that had exercised contained more mitochondria – the DNA power packs that drive cells – and that they were positioned differently to those of the non-exercised group. More research is needed to find out how the number and arrangement of mitochondria, stained green in the section of mouse hippocampus pictured, affect the growth of new neurons.

Written by Mick Warwicker

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.