Aerobic exercise enhances neural correlates of motor skill learning

Singh, Amaya M.; Neva, Jason L.; Staines, Richard

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2015.12.020

Cited by 50 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Results from the literature present some inconsistencies, with acute exercise improving motor skill learning in two within-subjects studies 23,25 , and in a dose-dependent manner in a between-subjects study 20 , but also no effect in yet another between-subjects study 26 and one non-significant increase in a further between-subjects study 27 . Please note that betweensubjects designs may not have provided sufficient sensitivity for this type of manipulation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Effect of acute physical exercise on motor sequence memory

Bosch

Bringard

Logrieco

et al. 2020

Preprint

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ABSTRACTAcute physical exercise improves memory functions by increasing neural plasticity in the hippocampus. In animals, a single session of physical exercise has been shown to boost anandamide (AEA), an endocannabinoid known to promote hippocampal plasticity. Hippocampal neuronal networks encode episodic memory representations, including the temporal organization of elements, and can thus benefit motor sequence learning. While previous work established that acute physical exercise has positive effects on declarative memory linked to hippocampal plasticity mechanisms, its influence on memory for motor sequences, and especially on neural mechanisms underlying possible effects, has been less investigated.Here we studied the impact of acute physical exercise on motor sequence learning, and its underlying neurophysiological mechanisms in humans, using a cross-over randomized within-subjects design. We measured behavior, fMRI activity, and circulating AEA levels in fifteen healthy participants while they performed a serial reaction time task (SRTT) before and after a short period of exercise (moderate or high intensity) or rest.We show that exercise enhanced motor sequence memory, significantly for high intensity exercise and tending towards significance for moderate intensity exercise. This enhancement correlated with AEA increase, and dovetailed with local increases in caudate nucleus and hippocampus activity.These findings demonstrate that acute physical exercise promotes sequence learning, thus attesting the overarching benefit of exercise to hippocampus-related memory functions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Effect of acute physical exercise on motor sequence memory

Bosch

Bringard

Logrieco

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…For example, a single session of exercise positively impacts declarative learning (Winter et al ., ), cognitive flexibility (Masley et al ., ), processing speed (Kamijo et al ., ) and alters patterns of prefrontal brain activity (Yanagisawa et al ., ). Recent work has shown that learning a skilled upper limb motor task is also enhanced by cycling exercise (Roig et al ., ; Mang et al ., , ; Skriver et al ., ) and exercise increases cortical excitability after motor training (Singh et al ., ). Additionally, a single bout of exercise potentiates the change in corticospinal excitability induced via repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over human primary motor cortex (M1) (McDonnell et al ., ; Mang et al ., ; Singh et al ., 2014b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

An acute bout of exercise modulates both intracortical and interhemispheric excitability

Neva

Brown

Mang

et al. 2017

Eur J of Neuroscience

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Primary motor cortex (M1) excitability is modulated following a single session of cycling exercise. Specifically, short-interval intracortical inhibition and intracortical facilitation are altered following a session of cycling, suggesting that exercise affects the excitability of varied cortical circuits. Yet we do not know whether a session of exercise also impacts the excitability of interhemispheric circuits between, and other intracortical circuits within, M1. Here we present two experiments designed to address this gap in knowledge. In experiment 1, single and paired pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) were used to measure intracortical circuits including, short-interval intracortical facilitation (SICF) tested at 1.1, 1.5, 2.7, 3.1 and 4.5 ms interstimulus intervals (ISIs), contralateral silent period (CSP) and interhemispheric interactions by measuring transcallosal inhibition (TCI) recorded from the abductor pollicus brevis muscles. All circuits were assessed bilaterally pre and two time points post (immediately, 30 min) moderate intensity lower limb cycling. SICF was enhanced in the left hemisphere after exercise at the 1.5 ms ISI. Also, CSP was shortened and TCI decreased bilaterally after exercise. In Experiment 2, corticospinal and spinal excitability were tested before and after exercise to investigate the locus of the effects found in Experiment 1. Exercise did not impact motor-evoked potential recruitment curves, Hoffman reflex or V-wave amplitudes. These results suggest that a session of exercise decreases intracortical and interhemispheric inhibition and increases facilitation in multiple circuits within M1, without concurrently altering spinal excitability. These findings have implications for developing exercise strategies designed to potentiate M1 plasticity and skill learning in healthy and clinical populations.

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“…There were no differences in visuomotor skill acquisition between rest and after exercise (p = 0.066), and for retention test (p = 0.761) that occurred 24 hours after the intervention. Similarly, Singh et al [32] used a moderate-intensity exercise protocol to assess response time during a bimanual task and did not obtain any significant differences between the exercise and control groups. A recent study by Stranda et al [33] found no effects of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (i.e., 65 % HRmax) conducted before each practice trial (3x/ week for 4 weeks) on speed and accuracy parameters in a novel keyboard typing task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Exercise-induced fatigue impairs visuomotor adaptability in physical education students

Zwierko

Wąsik

2019

PES

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Purpose: Physical exercise has been shown to exert various effects on visuomotor processing and motor learning. The present study aimed to examine the impact of exercise with progressively increased physical load on consecutive stages of perceptual-motor learning. We compared the effectiveness of visuomotor adaptability in four subsequent trials during a complex coordination task performed in different conditions, including under conditions of progressively increased physical load, and in non-exercise resting control conditions. Material: Twenty-seven physical education university students participated in this study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two group: (1) an exercise experimental group (n = 14), or (2) a non-exercise resting control group (n = 13). Methods: Participants in the experimental group performed three 10-minute effort-tests with increasing intensity on a cycloergometer. Each participant was assigned individual workload values below the lactate threshold (40% VO2max), at the lactate threshold (60% VO2max), and above the lactate threshold (80% VO2max). Four sessions of the two-hand coordination test included in the Vienna Test System were used to examine visuomotor adaptability variation. The total time duration, total error duration, and coordination difficulty were analyzed. Results: There was a significant interaction between number of test repetitions and group (experimental, control) for total duration ( F (3,75) = 3.54, p = 0.018). In particular, there was a significant reduction ( p = 0.006) in duration in the control group after fourth test repetitions as compared to the baseline. In the experimental group, in contrast, there was a tendency for duration to increase after exercise above the lactate threshold intensity. There was also a significant interaction between test repetitions and group for total error duration ( F (3,75) = 3.14, p = 0.03). Conclusions: The results suggest that high intensity exercise can disrupt visuomotor processing during complex skill acquisition. These findings highlight the interplay between exercise intensity and motor control and learning, which in turn, has practical implications for developing and improving motor training and physical education programs.

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Aerobic exercise enhances neural correlates of motor skill learning

Cited by 50 publications

References 86 publications

Effect of acute physical exercise on motor sequence memory

Effect of acute physical exercise on motor sequence memory

An acute bout of exercise modulates both intracortical and interhemispheric excitability

Exercise-induced fatigue impairs visuomotor adaptability in physical education students

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