A Single Bout of Aerobic Exercise Improves Motor Skill Consolidation in Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

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).

Short-Term Effects of Single-Session Split-Belt Treadmill Training on Dual-Task Performance in Parkinson's Disease and Healthy Elderly

“…Of note, gains from the training were often larger at retention than at post-training ( Table 2 and Figure 2 ), indicating that the training triggered offline consolidation on these tasks. Aerobic exercise has been shown to improve offline consolidation of a novel task in PD ( 66 ), and we expect that similar mechanisms were at work here for relearning previously trained tasks. These effects were particularly evident for SB75, which in contrast to the more explicit SB50 and SBCR conditions, may have relied on implicit learning processes due to the almost imperceptible belt speed differences ( 67 ).…”

Exploring test retest reliability and longitudinal stability of digital biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease in the m-Power dataset

“…We find a mixture of both effects for most tasks suggesting the presence of both aspects in DB longitudinal data. These observations are also in line with previous studies showing that training may reduce motor impairment in PD [19][20][21] . In particular, for the tapping task the difference between PD and HC disappears for several features which is primarily due to a shift in performance in HC.…”

Memory of split-belt walking endures weeks in young children and younger adults but less so in older adults

“…Whether sleep influences retention of motor adaptation is less clear, since it did not affect retention of a visuomotor rotation task (34). Limited evidence suggests acute, aerobic exercise may enhance subsequent motor learning and memory in persons with stroke (35) and Parkinson’s disease (36). Finally, neuromodulation with non-invasive brain stimulation may also hold promise for improving certain types of motor adaptation in older adults (37), but its influence on motor memory remains to be seen.…”