Acute exercise enhances the response to paired associative stimulation-Induced plasticity In the primary motor cortex

摘要

Abstract There is evidence that a single session of aerobic exercise can modulate intracortical inhibition. While decreases in inhibition appear to be a necessary precursor to the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP)-like plasticity, it is not known whether aerobic exercise can enhance the response to LTP induction. We investigated whether the addition of a preceding bout of exercise would modulate the response to paired associative stimulation (PAS) of the upper limb. It was hypothesized that exercise would enhance motor cortical (Ml) excitability following PAS compared to a session of PAS alone. Ten healthy individuals underwent a control session involving PAS alone and an exercise session where PAS was preceded by 20 min of moderate-intensity stationary biking.