Physical Exercise Preserves Adult Visual Plasticity in Mice and Restores it after a Stroke in the Somatosensory Cortex

Abstract

The primary visual cortex (V1) is widely used to study brain plasticity, which is not only crucial for normal brain function, such as learning and memory, but also for recovery after brain injuries such as stroke. In standard cage (SC) raised mice, experience-dependent ocular dominance (OD) plasticity in V1 declines with age and is compromised by a lesion in adjacent and distant cortical regions. In contrast, mice raised in an enriched environment (EE), exhibit lifelong OD plasticity and are protected from losing OD plasticity after a stroke-lesion in the somatosensory cortex. Since SC mice with an access to a running wheel (RW) displayed preserved OD plasticity during aging, we investigated whether physical exercise might also provide a plasticity promoting effect after a cortical stroke. To this end, we tested if adult RW-raised mice preserved OD plasticity after stroke and also if short-term running after stroke restored OD plasticity to SC mice. Indeed, unlike mice without a RW, adult RW mice continued to show OD plasticity even after stroke, and a 2 weeks RW experience after stroke already restored lost OD plasticity. Additionally, the experience-enabled increase of the spatial frequency and contrast threshold of the optomotor reflex of the open eye, normally lost after a stroke, was restored in both groups of RW mice. Our data suggest that physical exercise alone can not only preserve visual plasticity into old age, but also restore it after a cortical stroke.

Preconditioning Exercise in Rats Attenuates Early Brain Injury Resulting from Subarachnoid Hemorrhage by Reducing Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Neuronal Apoptosis

“…Most animal studies that have investigated the effects of preconditioning exercise have used a model of middle cerebral artery occlusion [9,35] or traumatic brain injury (TBI) [36]. Preconditioning methods of exercise prior to ischemia include voluntary wheel running [37] and forced treadmill running [35,36], both of which have neuroprotective effects. However, there are reports that forced exercise is the more effective of the two [38].…”

The Neuronal Activation of Deep Cerebellar Nuclei Is Essential for Environmental Enrichment-Induced Post-Stroke Motor Recovery

“…This disparity in the degree of improvement among different behavioral tests has led us to propose that the cerebellum may be the brain area most susceptible to EE after stroke. Until now, EE has been found to promote post-stroke plasticity in different brain regions [12, 13]. The role of the cerebellum, however, has been poorly characterized [14].…”

Aerobic Exercise and Human Visual Cortex Neuroplasticity: A Narrative Review

“…In addition to the physiological changes that occur within the visual cortex during and after physical exercise, animal studies have also demonstrated effects on visual perception such as improved object recognition [43] and enhanced discrimination of bidirectional moving gratings [44]. There is strong evidence that exercise, particularly voluntary exercise, enhances ocular dominance plasticity in adult rodents measured using in vivo electrophysiology [45][46][47]. Adult mice in environments with running wheels showed more pronounced ocular dominance plasticity following 7 days of monocular deprivation compared to mice without a running wheel.…”