Some hard-working rats may have proven exercise is just what you need to stay on top of your work, researchers say.
In a new study from Otago University, psychologists have found lab rats that had one 20-minute session of exercise, five days a week, did significantly better in productivity tests than their couch-potato counterparts.
The study's author, psychology lecturer Kristin Hillman, said the exercised rats completed more tasks to earn food and did so more quickly and efficiently.
She said the test was a great way of demonstrating the importance of fitness on mental wellbeing for humans too.
"Links between exercise and occupational or educational achievement are starting to be noted in humans, but these links are largely correlations and can be riddled with confounding psychosocial factor," she said.
"By using an animal model we obviously eliminate such factors, and are able to demonstrate a causal relationship between regular exercise and generalised industriousness."
The study appears in US scientific journal PLOS ONE.
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