Exercise and Environmental Enrichment as Enablers of Task-Specific Neuroplasticity and Stroke Recovery

Abstract

Improved stroke care has resulted in greater survival, but >50 % of patients have chronic disabilities and 33 % are institutionalized. While stroke rehabilitation is helpful, recovery is limited and the most significant gains occur in the first 2-3 months. Stroke triggers an early wave of gene and protein changes, many of which are potentially beneficial for recovery. It is likely that these molecular changes are what subserve spontaneous recovery. Two interventions, aerobic exercise and environmental enrichment, have pleiotropic actions that influence many of the same molecular changes associated with stroke injury and subsequent spontaneous recovery. Enrichment paradigms have been used for decades in adult and neonatal animal models of brain injury and are now being adapted for use in the clinic. Aerobic exercise enhances motor recovery and helps reduce depression after stroke. While exercise attenuates many of the signs associated with normal aging (e.g., hippocampal atrophy), its ability to reverse cognitive impairments subsequent to stroke is less evident. It may be that stroke, like other diseases such as cancer, needs to use multimodal treatments that augment complimentary neurorestorative processes.

Synergistic Effects of Enriched Environment and Task-Specific Reach Training on Poststroke Recovery of Motor Function

“…Significant between-group differences were observed for the amount of intact tissue remaining in the cortex (F [3,26] =60.461; P<0.001), striatum (F [3,26] =209.552; P<0.001), and corpus callosum (F [3,26] =10.252; P<0.001) using 1-way ANOVA. Post hoc tests indicated that in the cortex, striatum, and corpus callosum, the sham group had significantly more intact tissue than any of the other groups (Figure 3A and 3B; P<0.05).…”

“…One-way ANOVA indicated that there were significant differences in change in performance between groups (F [3,26] =3.306; P=0.036). Ryan-EinotGabriel-Welsch F post hoc analysis clearly demonstrated that the enrichment+reaching group had recovered significantly more than all other groups, even 1 month after the treatment paradigm had been terminated (P<0.05).…”

“…5,24 These studies utilize the premise that enrichment creates a neuroplastic milieu that is permissive for recovery after a stroke. 25,26 Task-specific training may then be used to capitalize on this permissive environment to induce neuroplastic change with maximal efficiency. 16,27 A similar concept has been successfully applied in previous studies by combining rehabilitation therapy with administration of various plasticity-promoting factors.…”

Social and environmental enrichment has different effects on ethanol and sucrose consumption in mice

“…Certainly, epidemiological studies show that those living in a lower socioeconomic environments are more likely to be impacted by harmful alcohol consumption and/or obesity (Batty, Lewars, Emslie, Benzeval, & Hunt, 2008;McCartney et al, 2016;Ferraro, Schafer, & Wilkinson, 2016;Non et al, 2016). While the mechanisms underlying the detrimental neural effects of ethanol and sucrose remain unclear, the provision of environmental enrichment has been shown to be neuroprotective in rodents (Anastasía, Torre, de Erausquin, & Mascó, 2009;Barone, Novelli, Piano, Gargini, & Strettoi, 2012;Griñan-Ferré et al, 2016;Kiss et al, 2013;Livingston-Thomas et al, 2016).…”

Neural Circuits Catch Fire

“…In the first paper in this section, Dr. Seth Hays [11] discusses combining vagus nerve stimulation, which alters cortical plasticity, with task-specific rehabilitation of motor skill for recovery of movement or auditory experience to treat tinnitus. Finally, this issue ends with a discussion by Dr. Dale Corbett and colleagues [12] on how environmental enrichment and exercise enhance many of the changes associated with spontaneous recovery. These articles detail how these interventions change the efficacy of activity-dependent plasticity within the trained circuits.…”