Facilitation of cortically evoked potentials with motor imagery during post-exercise depression of corticospinal excitability

Abstract

This study examined whether muscle fatigue alters the facilitatory effect of motor imagery on corticospinal excitability. We aimed to determine if post-exercise depression of potentials evoked magnetically from the motor cortex is associated with alterations in internally generated movement plans. In experiment 1, motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from two right hand and two right forearm muscles, at rest and during motor imagery of a maximal handgrip contraction, in eight neurologically normal subjects, before and after a 2-min maximal voluntary handgrip contraction. Resting MEP amplitude was facilitated by motor imagery in three of the four muscles, but consistently only in two. Motor imagery also reduced the trial-to-trial variability of resting MEPs. Following the exercise, resting MEP amplitude was depressed reliably in only one muscle engaged in the task, although two other muscles exhibited some depression. Motor imagery MEPs were smaller after exercise, but the degree of facilitation compared to the rest MEP was unchanged. In experiment 2, TMS intensity was increased after exercise-induced MEP depression so that the MEP amplitude matched the pre-exercise baseline. The amplitude of the MEP facilitated with motor imagery was not altered by MEP depression, nor was it increased when the TMS intensity was increased. These results suggest, at least with a simple motor task, that while post-exercise depression reduces corticospinal excitability, it does not appear to significantly affect the strength of the input to the motor cortex from those areas of the brain responsible for the storage and generation of internal representations of movement.