| Following a stroke, the majority of individuals are left with residual deficits and there is a need to continue to improve strategies to augment recovery. This dissertation explores the approach of optimizing central nervous system conditions using aerobic exercise prior to task training. In healthy individuals a single session of aerobic exercise influences arousal and attention however, it is unknown if these effects translate to a stroke population. Further, little is known about the effect of a single bout of aerobic exercise on subsequent skill adaptation. Therefore, the main objectives of this thesis were to investigate the effect of a single bout of aerobic exercise on: (1) CNS arousal and attention in a stroke population; and, (2) short-term skill adaptation in healthy individuals and those who have suffered a stroke. Overall, for individuals recovering from a stroke, CNS arousal may be augmented as indicated by faster reaction times in some conditions and consistently faster movement times across conditions following exercise. However, attention did not appear to be influenced by the exercise bout as reaction time variability was unchanged in study 1 and absolute change was comparable across tasks with differing attentional demands in study 2. While exercise positively enhanced short-term adaptation in healthy individuals, for individuals recovering from stroke the exercise bout did not appear to benefit upper-limb movement adaptation compared to a control condition. This dissertation highlights the potential for using exercise to influence CNS state after stroke, though results revealed significant between and within-subject variability in this population. Future work should progress to evaluating the longitudinal multi-session effects of pairing aerobic exercise with ecologically valid task training to determine if the observed single session benefits augment neurorehabilitation and aid long-term recovery from stroke. |
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