Acute exercise following skill practice promotes motor memory consolidation in parkinson's disease.

Acute exercise following skill practice promotes motor memory consolidation in parkinson's disease. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2020 Dec 20;:107366 Authors: Wanner P, Winterholler M, Gaßner H, Winkler J, Klucken J, Pfeifer K, Steib S Abstract Acute cardiovascular exercise has shown to promote neuroplastic processes supporting the consolidation of newly acquired motor skills in healthy adults. First results suggest that this concept may be transferred to populations with motor and cognitive dysfunctions. In this context, Parkinson's disease (PD) is highly relevant since patients demonstrate deficits in motor learning. Hence, in the present study we sought to explore the effect of a single post-practice exercise bout on motor memory consolidation in PD. For this purpose, 17 patients with PD (Hoehn and Yahr: 1 - 2.5, age: 60.1 ± 7.9 y) practiced a whole-body task followed by either (i) a moderate-intense bout of cycling, or (ii) seated rest for a total of 30 minutes. The motor task required the participants to balance on a tiltable platform (stabilometer) for 30 seconds. During skill practice, participants performed 15 trials followed by a retention test 1 day and 7 days later. We calculated time in balance (platform within ± 5° from horizontal) for each trial and within- and between-group differences in memory consolidation (i.e. offline learning = skill change from last acquisition block to retention tests) were analyzed. Groups revealed...
Source: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Learn Mem Source Type: research