Honors Theses and Capstones

Date Completed

Spring 2026

Abstract

Inhibitory control, a central component of executive function, is the ability to suppress unwanted actions in response to a stimulus (Verbruggen et al., 2014; Verbruggen et al., 2019) and is one of the best indicators of executive task management as well as the ability to prevent unwanted prepotent responses. This capacity is essential for goal specific behavior and for responding flexibly to challenges. The present study examined the effects of voluntary wheel running on inhibitory control in two cohorts of Long-Evans rats using a rodent variant of the canonical stop-signal task. We found that rats with access to an active running wheel displayed less overall inhibitory control during STOP trials than their sedentary counterparts. On GO trials, we observed no differences between conditions in terms of accuracy, but runners performed both GO and STOP trials faster overall. These findings, though not conclusive, suggest that the running rats may have become more impulsive, therefore exhibiting less inhibitory control. Alternatively, the running rats may have developed a strategy that involved absorbing the cost of the STOP trials (20%) to more quickly receive the reward associated with the GO trials (80%). Future studies should manipulate the ratio of GO and STOP trials to determine if these conclusions reflect either a deficit in inhibitory control or a change in strategic approach.

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

First Advisor

Adam Brockett

College or School

COLSA

Department or Program

Neuroscience and Behavior, COLSA

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

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