Temporal evolution of neurovascular coupling recovery following moderate‐ and high‐intensity exercise

Abstract

Purpose

Studies examining neurovascular coupling (NVC) require participants to refrain from exercise for 12–24 hours. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence for this restriction. The objectives for this study were to delineate the time‐course recovery of NVC metrics following exercise and establish the NVC within‐ and between‐day reliability.

Methods

Nine participants completed a complex visual search paradigm to assess NVC via transcranial Doppler ultrasound of the posterior cerebral artery blood velocity (PCA). Measurements were performed prior to and throughout the 8‐hour recovery period following three randomized conditions: 45 minutes of moderate‐intensity exercise (at 50% heart‐rate reserve), 30 minutes high‐intensity intervals (10, 1‐minute intervals at 85% heart‐rate reserve), and control (30 minutes quiet rest). In each condition, baseline measures were collected at 8:00am with serial follow‐ups at hours zero, one, two, four, six, and eight.

Results

Area‐under‐the‐curve and time‐to‐peak PCA velocity during the visual search were attenuated at hour zero following high‐intensity intervals (all p < 0.05); however, these NVC metrics recovered at hour one (all p > 0.13). Conversely, baseline PCA velocity, peak PCA velocity, and the relative percent increase were not different following high‐intensity intervals compared to baseline (all p > 0.26). No NVC metrics differed from baseline following both moderate exercise and control conditions (all p > 0.24). The majority of the NVC parameters demonstrated high levels of reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: >0.90).

Conclusion

Future NVC assessments can take place a minimum of one hour following exercise. Moreover, all metrics did not change across the control condition, therefore future studies using this methodology can reliably quantify NVC between 8:00am and 7:00 pm.

Abstract

Previous studies examining neurovascular coupling (NVC) metrics, required participants to refrain from exercise for 4‐24 hours prior to data collection, despite a lack of objective evidence for this time restriction. The results in the current investigation demonstrated that the NVC response was attenuated immediately following high‐intensity exercise within the posterior cerebral artery (PCA); however, the NVC response was comparable to baseline values one‐hour following exercise. Additionally, NVC metrics displayed high levels of within‐ and between‐day reliability across the control condition (8:00am – 7:00pm) when using a complex visual scene search paradigm (“Where’s Waldo”).