Exercising during pregnancy offers been shown to improve spatial learning and short-term memory space as well as boost BDNF mRNA levels and hippocampal PIK-294 cell survival in juvenile offspring. PIK-294 discriminate between novel and familiar objects in that they spent more time exploring the novel object than the familiar object. The offspring of non-exercising mothers were not able to successfully discriminate between objects and spent an equal amount of time with both objects. A subset of rats was euthanized 1 hr after the final object recognition test to assess c-FOS manifestation in the PER. The offspring of exercising mothers had more c-FOS manifestation in the PER than the offspring of non-exercising mothers. By comparison c-FOS levels in the adjacent auditory cortex did not differ between organizations. These results indicate that maternal exercise during pregnancy can improve object acknowledgement memory space in adult male offspring and increase c-FOS manifestation in the PER; suggesting that exercise during the gestational period may enhance mind function of the offspring. 1 Intro Substantial research has established STMY that exercise can improve both mental health and cognitive function. In laboratory animals most study within the cognitive enhancing effects of exercise has primarily focused on how exercise enhances spatial learning (Vaynman et al. 2004 Albeck et al. 2006 The improvements in spatial learning likely occur as a result of exercise-induced changes in the hippocampus such as improved neurogenesis (vehicle Praag et al. 1999 enhanced long-term potentiation (vehicle Praag et al. 1999 Farmer et al. 2004 O’Callaghan et al. 2007 and improved manifestation of neurotrophic factors (Trejo et al. 2001 Fabel et al. 2003 Vaynman et al. 2004 Adlard et al. 2005 Berchtold et al. 2005 Griffin et al. 2009 Specifically brain-derived neurotrophic element (BDNF) has been founded as the putative substrate that underlies many of the exercise related improvements in hippocampal function (Dishman et al. 2006 For example an exercise-induced increase in hippocampal BDNF levels has been shown to be necessary for improvements in spatial learning in the PIK-294 Morris water maze following exercise (Vaynman et al. 2004 More recent studies have shown that physical exercise can also improve nonspatial forms of learning and memory space that rely on structures other than the hippocampus. For instance exercise has been found to improve associative learning (Vehicle Hoomissen et al. 2004 Burghardt et al. 2006 Eisenstein & Holmes 2007 as well as object acknowledgement memory space (O’Callaghan et al. 2007 Fahey et al. 2008 Griffin et al. 2009 Hopkins & Bucci 2010 Hopkins et al. 2011 Object acknowledgement is a non-spatial PIK-294 form of memory space that depends on the PIK-294 perirhinal cortex (PER; PIK-294 Dere et al. 2007 and is based on the spontaneous inclination of rodents to spend more time exploring a novel object than a familiar one. Compared to sedentary rats those that had access to a running wheel exhibited enhanced object recognition memory space an effect that could not be attributed simply to changes in general exploratory behavior (Hopkins & Bucci 2010 Hopkins et al. 2011 Moreover enhanced object acknowledgement memory space was associated with raises in BDNF manifestation in PER but not in the hippocampus of rats that exercised (Hopkins & Bucci 2010 Although the effects of exercise within the adult mind have been well recorded less is known about the effects of exercise within the developing mind. Brain development starts in utero and continues until at least the end of the adolescent period (Rice & Barone 2000 Throughout this developmental process the brain can readily become affected by internal and external factors. Notably exercise has been found to have more powerful and long-lasting effects on both the mind and behavior when rats exercise as juveniles rather than as adults. For example rats that exercised during adolescence experienced greater raises in cell proliferation (Kim et al. 2004 BDNF manifestation (Adlard et al. 2005 Hopkins et al. 2011 and object acknowledgement memory space (Hopkins et al. 2011 than adult exercisers. In addition in the rats that exercised as adolescents the exercise-induced improvements in behavior lasted long after exercise halted while in adults the effects did not persist (Hopkins et al 2011 Similarly a growing number of studies possess reported that regular physical exercise during pregnancy can enhance cognition and behavior in the offspring. Exercise by pregnant rats has been found to improve.