Motor Skill Training, but not Voluntary Exercise, Improves Skilled Reaching After Unilateral Ischemic Lesions of the Sensorimotor Cortex in Rats
Open Access
- 1 May 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair
- Vol. 22 (3), 250-261
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1545968307308551
Abstract
Background and Purpose . Exercise and rehabilitative training each have been implicated in the promotion of restorative neural plasticity after cerebral injury. Because motor skill training induces synaptic plasticity and exercise increases plasticity-related proteins, we asked if exercise could improve the efficacy of training on a skilled motor task after focal cortical lesions. Methods . Female young and middle-aged rats were trained on the single-pellet retrieval task and received unilateral ischemic sensorimotor cortex lesions contralateral to the trained limb. Rats then received both, either, or neither voluntary running and/or rehabilitative training for 5 weeks beginning 5 days postlesion. Motor skill training consisted of daily practice of the impaired forelimb in a tray-reaching task. Exercised rats had free access to running wheels for 6 h/day. Reaching function was periodically probed using the single-pellet retrieval task. Results. In young adults, motor skill training significantly enhanced skilled reaching recovery compared to controls. However, exercise did not significantly enhance performance when administered alone or in combination with skill training. There was also no major benefit of exercise in older rats. Additionally, there were no effects of exercise in a measure of coordinated forelimb placement (the foot-fault test) or in immunocytochemical measures of several plasticity-related proteins in the motor cortex. Conclusions. In young and middle-aged animals, exercise did not improve motor skill training efficacy following ischemic lesions. Practicing motor skills more effectively improved recovery of these skills than did exercise. It remains possible that an alternative manner of administering exercise would be more effective.Keywords
This publication has 71 references indexed in Scilit:
- Effects of a Rostral Motor Cortex Lesion on Primary Motor Cortex Hand Representation Topography in PrimatesNeurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 2007
- A form of motor cortical plasticity that correlates with recovery of function after brain injuryProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- ENERGY INTAKE, MEAL FREQUENCY, AND HEALTH: A Neurobiological PerspectiveAnnual Review of Nutrition, 2005
- d-Amphetamine enhances skilled reaching after ischemic cortical lesions in ratsNeuroscience Letters, 2005
- The Basal Forebrain Cholinergic System Is Essential for Cortical Plasticity and Functional Recovery following Brain InjuryNeuron, 2005
- Experience-driven brain plasticity: beyond the synapseNeuron Glia Biology, 2004
- Consequences of forced disuse of the impaired forelimb after unilateral cortical injuryBehavioural Brain Research, 2004
- Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy and Rehabilitation Exercises Lessen Motor Deficits and Volume of Brain Injury After Striatal Hemorrhagic Stroke in RatsStroke, 2003
- Environment, Social Interaction, and Physical Activity as Determinants of Functional Outcome after Cerebral Infarction in the RatExperimental Neurology, 1996
- Environmental Enrichment and Cortical Injury: Behavioral and Anatomical Consequences of Frontal Cortex LesionsCerebral Cortex, 1991