Exercise and Motor Learning

We make every participant do a stress test at the beginning of the study to make sure they are cleared for exercise by our cardiologist. A stress test gives us insight into your heart health and will make sure that you're safe to exercise. We also use this to determine what a high intensity is for you.

The training is a reaching task preformed on a robot located in the lab, called a KINARM . Training takes place over 5 sessions.

There are two conditions (groups) for this study Exercise or Rest.
The exercise group will be preforming high intensity exercise on a recumbent bike and the rest group will be watching TV for an equivalent amount of time.

We do assessments before and after training to see if there are changes that occur in the brain.

Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI)

The MRI is a machine that uses magnetic waves to allow us to take images of your brain. We can use this to look at the structure and function of your brain. For more information click here.

 Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

We use TMS to assess the excitability and plasticity of your brain. We do this by putting a coil on the outside of your head and stimulating the part of your brain that controls the hand. We then use sensors that we place on your hand to measure how much your muscle moves. For more information click here.

In total the full study with all the assessments takes 11 days. The days are outlined below.

A branch of this study is a 6 day study looking at moderate intensity exercise on healthy older individuals (ages 55-75). This will provide insight into what intensity provides the greatest impact on motor learning.