Despite the beneficial effects of exercise and physical activity, there is little knowledge about the effects of different types of physical activity on neural function. The present study assessed the effects of two types of selected aerobic exercises prior to stroke induction and characterized the expression of TrkB, TNF-α, and MMP2 genes in vivo. Forty male adult Wistar rats were exposed to aerobic exercises following randomization into four groups, including swimming + MCAO (Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion) ( n = 10 ), treadmill training + MCAO ( n = 10 ), MCAO ( n = 10 ), and control ( n = 10 ). The swimming + MCAO group included swimming for 30 minutes each day, while the treadmill training + MCAO group program involved running for 30 minutes each day at an intensity of 15 m/min, for three weeks, five days a week. Neurological deficit was assessed using modified criteria at 24 h after the onset of cerebral ischemia. In the control group, the animals worked freely for three weeks without undergoing ischemia. The MCAO group also operated freely for three weeks after they underwent a stroke. Both training groups underwent ischemia after three weeks of training. TrkB, TNF-α, and MMP2 gene expressions were increased in the MCAO+ swimming training and in the MCAO + running training group compared to the control and MCAO groups, respectively. Preconditioning aerobic exercises significantly increased brain trophic support and reduced brain damage conditions in exercise groups, which support the importance of aerobic exercise in the prevention and treatment of stroke.

Introduction: Several inves tigations on the mechanism of motor control and learning leads to multiple theories in this field. The purpose of this s tudy was to examine these theories and integrate them into a conceptual model for a better unders tanding of motor control and learning. Conclusion: A series of motor control s tudies have demons trated that many movements, especially reaching movement that requires high final position accuracy, consis t of two acceleration and deceleration phases. Review of some motor control theories show that they are consis t of two parts so that each one controls a particular part of the reaching movement by different mechanisms. Integrating these theories, based on the neural s tructures involved at each s tage, provides a comprehensive unders tanding of how to control the movement. We sugges t conceptual integrated model.

Transcranial Direct Current Simulation (tDCS) can improve or disrupt brain functions and can therefore be used to investigate hemispheric specialization. Accordingly, this study was designed to research hemispheric specialization in the control of final position accuracy by comparing the effects of tDCS on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the right and left hemispheres. Forty-three right-handed male university students (aged 21.34±1.61) volunteered to participate in this study. They were divided into the right DLPFC, left DLPFC, sham, and practice groups, including 12, 11, 9, and 11 participants, respectively. After learning motor skills in two days, the participants practiced final position accuracy in one day. They were asked to move the cursor toward the centers of targets appearing randomly at the top, middle, and bottom on the right side of a monitor as accurately and quickly as they could. At the time of practice, the participants received anodic stimulation in one hemisphere and cathodic stimulation in the other. The results indicated that the left anodic/right cathodic group (left DLPFC) showed the worst performance, which may be caused by the inhibitory effects of cathodic stimulations in the right DLPFC. Therefore, it is predicted that the right hemisphere may have greater specialization in final position accuracy of movement.

Introduction: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) can improve or impair the function of the brain. This has turned tDCS into a tool that can be used for evaluation of hemispheric specialization in motor programming and final position accuracy, as components of motor control and learning. Materials and Methods: Two different studies were designed. 53 male students (21.34±1.61 years) and 43 male students (20.442±1.578 years) were participated in the first and second studies, respectively. Participants were randomly assigned into four groups. C3 /C4 and F3/F4 areas were stimulated with the 2mA current in the first and second studies, respectively. The Repeated Measure test was used to analyze data. Results: In the first experiment, left M1 group (left anode/right cathode stimulation) significantly improved motor programming compared to the other groups. In the second experiment, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex group (right cathode/left anode) significantly decreased final position accuracy compared to the other groups. Conclusion: Our data suggested that the left hemisphere is specialized for motor programming whereas the right hemisphere is specialized for final position accuracy. These results are interpretable with hybrid motor control hypothesis.

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