Cerebral activity preceding voluntary exercise - generation of central command

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We conducted human and animal studies to explore neural mechanisims of generating central command responsible for feedforward control of circulation during exercise. When measuring cerebral cortical activity with near infrared spectroscopy at various sites of the frontal lobe in humans, prefrontal activity increased preceding the exercise onset while motor areas never showed such activity. Animal study was performed to examine whether neural circuits in the brainstem, particularly the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA), may play a role in generating central command. Injection of a GABA antagonist into VTA increased renal sympathetic outflow and blood pressure and caused rhythmic motor nerve discharges, whereas injection of a GABA agonist stopped spontaneous motor activity. Blood flow and c-fos expression in VTA increased during spontaneous motor activity. Thus it is likely that an increase in prefrontal activity triggers neural circuits in VTA to generate central command.