The goal of this new study was to home in on any specific neuronal changes that occur in the minutes and days following a single period of exercise. The researchers exposed a cohort of otherwise sedentary mice to a two-hour exercise session on a running wheel. The single bout of exercise was estimated as having a human equivalent of a weekly game of basketball, or a 2-mile (3.2-km) run.As soon as one-hour post exercise the mice displayed enhanced synaptic activity in the hippocampus, a brain area linked to memory and learning. Further analysis then revealed a surprising new discovery – the expression of a particular gene called Mtss1L was enhanced in single neurons following the acute exercise session.