Acute exercise as a modifier of neocortical plasticity and aperiodic activity in the visual cortex

Cadwallader, Claire J., Steiniger, Jennifer, Cooper, Patrick S., Zhou, Shou-Han, Hendrikse, Joshua, Sumner, Rachael L., Kirk, Ian J., Chong, Trevor T.-J. and Coxon, James P. 2023. Acute exercise as a modifier of neocortical plasticity and aperiodic activity in the visual cortex. Scientific Reports 13 (1) , 7491. 10.1038/s41598-023-34749-w

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Abstract

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a form of neuroplasticity commonly implicated in mechanistic models of learning and memory. Acute exercise can boost LTP in the motor cortex, and is associated with a shift in excitation/inhibition (E:I) balance, but whether this extends to other regions such as the visual cortex is unknown. We investigated the effect of a preceding bout of exercise on LTP induction and the E:I balance in the visual cortex using electroencephalography (EEG). Young adults (N = 20, mean age = 24.20) engaged in 20 min of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercise and rest across two counterbalanced sessions. LTP was induced using a high frequency presentation of a visual stimulus; a “visual tetanus”. Established EEG markers of visual LTP, the N1b and P2 component of the visual evoked potential, and an EEG-derived measure of the E:I balance, the aperiodic exponent, were measured before and after the visual tetanus. As expected, there was a potentiation of the N1b following the visual tetanus, with specificity to the tetanised stimulus, and a non-specific potentiation of the P2. These effects were not sensitive to a preceding bout of exercise. However, the E:I balance showed a late shift towards inhibition following the visual tetanus. A preceding bout of exercise resulted in specificity of this E:I balance shift to the tetanised stimulus, that was not seen following rest. This novel finding suggests a possible exercise-induced tuning of the visual cortex to stimulus details following LTP induction.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Publisher:	Nature Research
ISSN:	2045-2322
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 December 2024
Date of Acceptance:	6 May 2023
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2024 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174495

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