Title:

An Examination of the Acute Effects of Exercise on the Brain as seen by Resting State Functional MRI

Department: Medical Biophysics
Issue Date: Nov-2014
Abstract (summary): Resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) is a non-invasive imaging technique used to probe differences in brain activity across interventions or populations. While long term exercise is known to have cognitive, structural and neuro-protective brain effects, considerably less is known about exercise in the context of resting state functional connectivity (rs-fc) in the brain. In this thesis I examine the effects of moderate intensity single session exercise on rs-fc in young healthy adults, using rs-fMRI. Data are analyzed using independent component analysis, denoising and dual regression procedures. Analysis reveals increased activation post-exercise in three sensorimotor areas: the post-central gyrus, secondary somatosensory area and thalamus. This thesis establishes the feasibility of single session exercise paradigms to probe rs-fc and illustrates the importance of analysis considerations to improve detection of session effects. These research tools are extended to a pilot chronic stroke cohort, to establish functional measures that may relate to stroke recovery.
Content Type: Thesis

Permanent link

https://hdl.handle.net/1807/76848

Items in TSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.