The effects of voluntary, involuntary, and forced exercises on motor recovery in a stroke rat model

Stroke rehabilitation with different exercise paradigms has been investigated, but a comparison study on motor recovery after voluntary, involuntary, and forced exercises is limited. The current study used a rat brain ischemia model to investigate the effects of voluntary wheel running, involuntary muscle movement caused by functional electrical stimulation (FES), and forced treadmill exercise on motor recovery and brain BDNF changes. The results showed that voluntary exercise is the most effective intervention in upregulating the hippocampal BDNF level, and facilitating motor recovery after brain ischemia.