Dhe experiment was several years ago, and the neurologist Gerd Kempermann still remembers it very well. In a research project at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, he and others used mice to investigate how exercise during pregnancy affects children. The result, published in spring 2006, was clear.
According to the study, baby mice whose mothers often moved around on a wheel during pregnancy form about 40 percent more nerve cells than the babies of mouse mothers who moved less. The difference occurred in the hippocampus, a brain region heavily involved in memory and learning. Almost two decades later, it is not certain whether and how these results can be extrapolated to humans. Kempermann says: “In any case, this is a finding that still gives you food for thought.”