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An acute bout of aerobic exercise reduces movement time in a Fitts' task.

ABSTRACT: Movement time (MT) is one of the most important variables influencing the way we control our movements. A few previous studies have generally found that MT reduces with reaction time testing during exercise. However, limited evidence exists concerning change in MT following an acute bout of exercise. Our purpose was to investigate the effect of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on movement time as assessed by a Fitts' Law task. We also sought to determine if exercise would further lower MT during the more difficult task conditions compared with rest. Nineteen (12 male, 7 female) volunteers (19-28 yrs) completed a computerized paired serial pointing task to measure movement time before and after rest (R) and an acute bout of moderate aerobic exercise (E) using a within subjects crossover design. Comparisons between exercise and rest conditions were made to determine if there were differences in movement time. Exercise significantly reduced MT compared with rest. Movement time was reduced by an average of 208 ms following exercise compared with 108 ms following rest. Exercise did not further lower MT during the more difficult task conditions. These results suggest that an acute bout of aerobic exercise reduces movement time which is an important component of motor control. Further studies are needed to determine the duration of the effect as well as the optimum duration and intensity of exercise.

SUBMITTER: Smith DL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6312392 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An acute bout of aerobic exercise reduces movement time in a Fitts' task.

Smith Dean L DL Claytor Randal P RP

PloS one 20181231 12

Movement time (MT) is one of the most important variables influencing the way we control our movements. A few previous studies have generally found that MT reduces with reaction time testing during exercise. However, limited evidence exists concerning change in MT following an acute bout of exercise. Our purpose was to investigate the effect of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on movement time as assessed by a Fitts' Law task. We also sought to determine if exercise would further lower MT durin ...[more]

PMID: 30596776

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Project description:Background: Motor learning is impaired in Parkinson's disease (PD), with patients demonstrating deficits in skill acquisition (online learning) and consolidation (offline learning) compared to healthy adults of similar age. Recent studies in young adults suggest that single bouts of aerobic exercise (AEX), performed in close temporal proximity to practicing a new motor task, may facilitate motor skill learning. Thus, we aimed at investigating the effects of a single bout of aerobic cycling on online and offline learning in PD patients. Methods: 17 PD patients (Hoehn and Yahr 1 - 2.5, age: 64.4 ± 6.2) participated in this crossover study. Immediately prior to practicing a novel balance task, patients either performed 30 min of (i) moderate intensity (60-70% VO2max) aerobic cycling, or (ii) seated rest (order counterbalanced). The task required patients to stabilize a balance platform (stabilometer) in a horizontal position for 30 s. For each experimental condition, patients performed 15 acquisition trials, followed by a retention test 24 h later. We calculated time in balance (platform within ± 5° from horizontal) for each trial, and analyzed within- and between-subjects differences in skill acquisition (online learning) and skill retention (offline learning) using mixed repeated-measures ANOVA. Results: We found that the exercise bout had no effect on performance level or online gains during acquisition, despite affecting the time course of skill improvements (larger initial and reduced late skill gains). Aerobic cycling significantly improved offline learning, as reflected by larger 24-h skill retention compared to the rest condition. Conclusion: Our results suggest that a single bout of moderate-intensity AEX is effective in improving motor skill consolidation in PD patients. Thus, acute exercise may represent an effective strategy to enhance motor memory formation in this population. More work is necessary to understand the underlying mechanisms, the optimal scheduling of exercise, and the applicability to other motor tasks. Further, the potential for patients in later disease stages need to be investigated. The study was a priori registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03245216).

Project description:OBJECTIVE:Do movements made with an intracortical BCI (iBCI) have the same movement time properties as able-bodied movements? Able-bodied movement times typically obey Fitts' law: [Formula: see text] (where MT is movement time, D is target distance, R is target radius, and [Formula: see text] are parameters). Fitts' law expresses two properties of natural movement that would be ideal for iBCIs to restore: (1) that movement times are insensitive to the absolute scale of the task (since movement time depends only on the ratio [Formula: see text]) and (2) that movements have a large dynamic range of accuracy (since movement time is logarithmically proportional to [Formula: see text]). APPROACH:Two participants in the BrainGate2 pilot clinical trial made cortically controlled cursor movements with a linear velocity decoder and acquired targets by dwelling on them. We investigated whether the movement times were well described by Fitts' law. MAIN RESULTS:We found that movement times were better described by the equation [Formula: see text], which captures how movement time increases sharply as the target radius becomes smaller, independently of distance. In contrast to able-bodied movements, the iBCI movements we studied had a low dynamic range of accuracy (absence of logarithmic proportionality) and were sensitive to the absolute scale of the task (small targets had long movement times regardless of the [Formula: see text] ratio). We argue that this relationship emerges due to noise in the decoder output whose magnitude is largely independent of the user's motor command (signal-independent noise). Signal-independent noise creates a baseline level of variability that cannot be decreased by trying to move slowly or hold still, making targets below a certain size very hard to acquire with a standard decoder. SIGNIFICANCE:The results give new insight into how iBCI movements currently differ from able-bodied movements and suggest that restoring a Fitts' law-like relationship to iBCI movements may require non-linear decoding strategies.

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An acute bout of aerobic exercise reduces movement time in a Fitts' task.

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An acute bout of aerobic exercise reduces movement time in a Fitts' task.

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