Abstract:Water immersion is widely used in physiotherapy and may even improve the functional outcomes of hemiplegic patients after stroke. To investigate the cortical responses to water immersion, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure cortical activations in the primary somatosensory area (S1), parietal association area (PAA), supplementary motor area (SMA), and primary motor area (M1). Nine healthy adult males were rested in a sitting position for 15 min with simultaneous measurements of fN… Show more
“…We have previously shown that whole-body water immersion (WI) increases cutaneous afferent input and leads to a modulation of sensorimotor integration [15]–[17]. However, low-intensity afferent stimuli by whole-body WI did not alter corticospinal excitability or intracortical circuits.…”
Whole-body water immersion (WI) has been reported to change sensorimotor integration. However, primary motor cortical excitability is not affected by low-intensity afferent input. Here we explored the effects of whole-body WI and water flow stimulation (WF) on corticospinal excitability and intracortical circuits. Eight healthy subjects participated in this study. We measured the amplitude of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) produced by single transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses and examined conditioned MEP amplitudes by paired-pulse TMS. We evaluated short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) using the paired-TMS technique before and after 15-min intervention periods. Two interventions used were whole-body WI with water flow to the lower limbs (whole-body WF) and whole-body WI without water flow to the lower limbs (whole-body WI). The experimental sequence included a baseline TMS assessment (T0), intervention for 15 min, a second TMS assessment immediately after intervention (T1), a 10 min resting period, a third TMS assessment (T2), a 10 min resting period, a fourth TMS assessment (T3), a 10 min resting period, and the final TMS assessment (T4). SICI and ICF were evaluated using a conditioning stimulus of 90% active motor threshold and a test stimulus adjusted to produce MEPs of approximately 1–1.2 mV, and were tested at intrastimulus intervals of 3 and 10 ms, respectively. Whole-body WF significantly increased MEP amplitude by single-pulse TMS and led to a decrease in SICI in the contralateral motor cortex at T1, T2 and T3. Whole-body WF also induced increased corticospinal excitability and decreased SICI. In contrast, whole-body WI did not change corticospinal excitability or intracortical circuits.
“…We have previously shown that whole-body water immersion (WI) increases cutaneous afferent input and leads to a modulation of sensorimotor integration [15]–[17]. However, low-intensity afferent stimuli by whole-body WI did not alter corticospinal excitability or intracortical circuits.…”
Whole-body water immersion (WI) has been reported to change sensorimotor integration. However, primary motor cortical excitability is not affected by low-intensity afferent input. Here we explored the effects of whole-body WI and water flow stimulation (WF) on corticospinal excitability and intracortical circuits. Eight healthy subjects participated in this study. We measured the amplitude of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) produced by single transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses and examined conditioned MEP amplitudes by paired-pulse TMS. We evaluated short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) using the paired-TMS technique before and after 15-min intervention periods. Two interventions used were whole-body WI with water flow to the lower limbs (whole-body WF) and whole-body WI without water flow to the lower limbs (whole-body WI). The experimental sequence included a baseline TMS assessment (T0), intervention for 15 min, a second TMS assessment immediately after intervention (T1), a 10 min resting period, a third TMS assessment (T2), a 10 min resting period, a fourth TMS assessment (T3), a 10 min resting period, and the final TMS assessment (T4). SICI and ICF were evaluated using a conditioning stimulus of 90% active motor threshold and a test stimulus adjusted to produce MEPs of approximately 1–1.2 mV, and were tested at intrastimulus intervals of 3 and 10 ms, respectively. Whole-body WF significantly increased MEP amplitude by single-pulse TMS and led to a decrease in SICI in the contralateral motor cortex at T1, T2 and T3. Whole-body WF also induced increased corticospinal excitability and decreased SICI. In contrast, whole-body WI did not change corticospinal excitability or intracortical circuits.
“…This finding suggests that the somatosensory input from water immersion might activate this cortical area [11]. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no direct evidence that water immersion has any effect on somatosensory cortical processing.…”
BackgroundWater immersion therapy is used to treat a variety of cardiovascular, respiratory, and orthopedic conditions. It can also benefit some neurological patients, although little is known about the effects of water immersion on neural activity, including somatosensory processing. To this end, we examined the effect of water immersion on short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) elicited by median nerve stimuli. Short-latency SEP recordings were obtained for ten healthy male volunteers at rest in or out of water at 30°C. Recordings were obtained from nine scalp electrodes according to the 10-20 system. The right median nerve at the wrist was electrically stimulated with the stimulus duration of 0.2 ms at 3 Hz. The intensity of the stimulus was fixed at approximately three times the sensory threshold.ResultsWater immersion significantly reduced the amplitudes of the short-latency SEP components P25 and P45 measured from electrodes over the parietal region and the P45 measured by central region.ConclusionsWater immersion reduced short-latency SEP components known to originate in several cortical areas. Attenuation of short-latency SEPs suggests that water immersion influences the cortical processing of somatosensory inputs. Modulation of cortical processing may contribute to the beneficial effects of aquatic therapy.Trial RegistrationUMIN-CTR (UMIN000006492)
“…Evidence of interference is typically measured as decreased performance of one, or both, tasks under dual‐task conditions relative to performance on their own (Woollacott and Shumway‐Cook, ). For example, a postural balancing task performed in water might be associated with increased brain activity relative to on land, which is consistent with previous findings for healthy adults (Sato et al ., ). If so, one might hypothesize that more dual‐task interference will be observed when the postural task is performed simultaneously with a non‐motor cognitive task (e.g.…”
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