Master's and Doctoral Programs in Physical Therapy, University of the City of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Laboratory of Nuclear Medicine (LIM 43), Institute of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Biomedical Science Institute, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Behav Brain Res. 2021 Sep 24;414:113480. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113480. Epub 2021 Jul 21.
Learning complex motor skills is an essential process in our daily lives. Moreover, it is an important aspect for the development of therapeutic strategies that refer to rehabilitation processes since motor skills previously acquired can be transferred to similar tasks (motor skill transfer) or recovered without further practice after longer delays (motor skill retention). Different acrobatic exercise training (AE) protocols induce plastic changes in areas involved in motor control and improvement in motor performance. However, the plastic mechanisms involved in the retention of a complex motor skill, essential for motor learning, are not well described. Thus, our objective was to analyze the brain plasticity mechanisms involved in motor skill retention in AE . Motor behavior tests, and the expression of synaptophysin (SYP), synapsin-I (SYS), and early growth response protein 1 (Egr-1) in brain areas involved in motor learning were evaluated. Young male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: sedentary (SED), AE, and AE with retention period (AER). AE was performed three times a week for 8 weeks, with 5 rounds in the circuit. After a fifteen-day retention interval, the AER animals was again exposed to the acrobatic circuit. Our results revealed motor performance improvement in the AE and AER groups. In the elevated beam test, the AER group presented a lower time and greater distance, suggesting retention period is important for optimizing motor learning consolidation. Moreover, AE promoted significant plastic changes in the expression of proteins in important areas involved in control and motor learning, some of which were maintained in the AER group. In summary, these data contribute to the understanding of neural mechanisms involved in motor learning in an animal model, and can be useful to the construction of therapeutics strategies that optimize motor learning in a rehabilitative context.
学习复杂的运动技能是我们日常生活中的一个重要过程。此外,对于涉及康复过程的治疗策略的发展,这也是一个重要的方面,因为以前获得的运动技能可以转移到类似的任务(运动技能转移)或在更长的延迟后无需进一步练习即可恢复(运动技能保留)。不同的杂技运动训练(AE)方案会引起运动控制相关区域的可塑性变化,并提高运动表现。然而,对于复杂运动技能保留所涉及的可塑性机制,这对于运动学习至关重要,还没有得到很好的描述。因此,我们的目的是分析 AE 中涉及复杂运动技能保留的大脑可塑性机制。评估了运动行为测试以及参与运动学习的脑区中突触小体蛋白(SYP)、突触素-I(SYS)和早期生长反应蛋白 1(Egr-1)的表达。将年轻雄性 Wistar 大鼠随机分为 3 组:久坐不动(SED)、AE 和具有保留期(AER)的 AE。AE 每周进行 3 次,共进行 8 周,每个循环进行 5 轮。在 15 天的保留间隔后,AER 动物再次暴露于杂技电路中。我们的结果显示 AE 和 AER 组的运动表现均得到改善。在高架横梁测试中,AER 组的时间更短,距离更大,这表明保留期对于优化运动学习巩固很重要。此外,AE 促进了控制和运动学习相关重要区域中蛋白质表达的显著可塑性变化,其中一些在 AER 组中得以维持。总之,这些数据有助于理解动物模型中涉及运动学习的神经机制,并且可以为构建在康复背景下优化运动学习的治疗策略提供参考。