Hippocampus dentate gyrus (DG) retains ongoing incorporation of new neurons throughout life; new neurons arise from local neuronal progenitor cells and become mature granule cells, principal projection neurons of the DG. Several factors affect neuronal progenitor proliferation rate and/or newborn cell survival and differentiation. Previously, we found that behavioural experiences enhance the survival of immature neurons, but the mechanisms underlying are still poorly understood. It is known that, during development, synaptogenesis spares newborn neurons from death. Recently, we have shown that swimming within a pool maze with or without hippocampus-dependent or -independent learning, induces an anticipated appearance of GABAergic synapses onto immature neurons. Taking into account that physical activity is shared by all the adopted behavioural protocols, we studied the contribution of this factor to induce synaptogenesis anticipation onto immature neurons. Thus, rats were injected with GFP-expressing retrovirus and, at fourth day from surgery, they underwent voluntary or forced running protocols over three days. The timing of synaptic input appearance onto GFP-positive cells in granule cell layer of DG was evaluated by patch clamp approach and the morphology of immature neurons was also analyzed. Both voluntary and forced running resulted in anticipated synaptogenesis, but in a lesser extent than swimming within a pool maze with or without cognitive engagement. These findings are consistent with the idea that physical activity per se is able to activate the hippocampal network, but hippocampus activation results stronger when physical activity is addressed to exploration.