Fast cycling can help Parkinson’s Disease patients strengthen brain connectivity for motor ability

Exer­cise Rate Relat­ed to Improve­ments in Parkinson’s Dis­ease (RSNA release):

Peo­ple with Parkin­son’s dis­ease ben­e­fit from exer­cise pro­grams on sta­tion­ary bicy­cles, with the great­est effect for those who ped­al faster, accord­ing to a study pre­sent­ed today at the annu­al meet­ing of the Radi­o­log­i­cal Soci­ety of North Amer­i­ca (RSNA). Func­tion­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (fcM­RI) data showed that faster ped­al­ing led to greater con­nec­tiv­i­ty in brain areas asso­ci­at­ed with motor abil­i­ty…The patients under­went bicy­cle exer­cise ses­sions three times a week for eight weeks. Some patients exer­cised at a vol­un­tary lev­el and oth­ers under­went forced-rate exer­cise, ped­al­ing at a speed above their vol­un­tary rate. The researchers used a mod­i­fied exer­cise bike to induce forced-rate activ­i­ty. “We devel­oped an algo­rithm to con­trol a motor on the bike and used a con­troller to sense the patien­t’s rate of exer­tion and adjust the motor based on their input,” Dr. Alberts said…Dr. Alberts not­ed that that while faster ped­al­ing led to more sig­nif­i­cant results, not all Parkin­son’s patients need to do forced-rate exer­cise to see improvement.”

Study: Exer­cise Ther­a­py for Parkinson’s Dis­ease: Faster Ped­al­ing is Relat­ed to Greater Improve­ment in Motor Connectivity

Relat­ed article:

About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS is an independent think-tank and consulting firm providing services at the frontier of applied neuroscience, health, leadership and innovation.
SHARPBRAINS es un think-tank y consultoría independiente proporcionando servicios para la neurociencia aplicada, salud, liderazgo e innovación.

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