Studies in mice have shown the direct transmission of exercise-induced effects through the father’s sperm. Before you get up in arms, I know humans aren’t mice but the results are promising.
After the mice-dads completed an exercise regiment, different genes were expressed in the hippocampus and improved their performance on memory exams.
Mice born from the athletic mice-dads also showed improved performance on memory tests when compared to siblings born before the father worked out. Additionally, their brains showed similar gene expression found in their father.
“All this has led to the litters to have inherited the greater capacity of learning and memory of the running parents.”
The author of the paper suggests the father’s sperm carries microRNAs, molecules which regulate gene expression.
From the abstract: These results demonstrate the inheritance of exercise-induced cognition enhancement through the germline, pointing to paternal physical activity as a direct factor driving offspring’s brain physiology and cognitive behavior.
