Giving really high doses of certain cholesterol drugs to male mice might make them move slower and explore less — the higher the dose, the worse the effect seems to be.

In mice, super high doses of certain cholesterol drugs seem to lower the activity of an important brain enzyme across the body, including in the brain, just a couple of hours after taking them.

When male mice get really high doses of statins, they act differently — like moving less or exploring less — and their brain chemistry changes too. Scientists think the way statins affect a certain brain enzyme might be why this happens.

In mice, taking a very high dose of statins might make them swim longer and act less helpless, which could mean it helps with depression-like behavior—even though it also seems to affect their movement in other ways.