Acute Exercise Modulates Feature-selective Responses in Human Cortex.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Human vision research
• Sensory processing

Background:

• Behavioral state significantly impacts neural activity.
• Locomotion in nonhuman mammals and invertebrates increases sensory cortex response gain.
• This suggests enhanced sensory sensitivity during active environmental exploration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if human vision sensitivity is also enhanced during active movement.
• To explore the relationship between locomotion and visual cortex neural response gain in humans.

Main Methods:

• Used an inverted encoding model to estimate feature-selective neural response profiles.
• Acquired electroencephalography (EEG) data from 18 participants performing an orientation discrimination task.
• Task performed while seated at rest and during low- and high-intensity cycling.

Main Results:

• Evidence of inverted-U effects observed in visual cortex sensitivity.
• Peak feature-selective tuning profiles were highest during low-intensity exercise compared to rest and high-intensity exercise.
• Effects were driven by changes in tuning curve gain and profile bandwidth during low-intensity exercise.

Conclusions:

• Human visual cortex sensitivity is enhanced during locomotive behavior, despite species-specific differences in visual pathways.
• Exercise-induced gain modulates feature-selective coding in human sensory cortex.
• Results link neural mechanisms of behavioral state across species.