Exercise-Induced Neuroplasticity in Parkinson’s Disease: A Metasynthesis of the Literature

Table 3

Narrative synthesis of neuroplastic outcomes from pre- to post-intervention.

Reference	Quality	Method used to measure neuroplasticity	Specification of signaling type or brain area/s		Direction of change from pre to post-intervention	MA
Angelucci et al.	13	Blood sampling, BDNF serum concentration			0	Yes
Fontanesi et al.	14	Blood sampling, TrkB signaling in lymphocytes	pY-TrkB (145 kDa)		+	No
			pY-TrkB (95 kDa)		0	No
			NR1		+	No
Frazzitta et al.	20	Blood sampling, BDNF serum concentration			+	Yes
Zoladz et al.	15	Blood sampling, BDNF serum concentration			+	Yes
				Activity change from pre to post-intervention
Batson et al.	6	fMRI, BOLD signal	Connection between anterior and posterior aspects of Default Mode Network	+	+	No
			Connection between basal ganglia and premotor cortex	+	+	No
Duchesne et al.	14	fMRI, BOLD signal	Temporal lobes	+	+	No
			Left ventral striatum	+	+	No
			Left hippocampus	+	+	No
			Cerebellum (lobules 8 and 9 bilaterally and right crus)	+	+	No
Maidan et al.	15	fMRI, BOLD signal	Middle temporal gyrus	−	+	No
Shah et al.	14	fMRI, BOLD signal	Connection between active motor cortex and ipsilateral thalamus	+	+	No
Carvalho et al.	16	EEG, mean frequency	No significance given to area	+	+	No
Fisher et al. [25]	14	TMS, CSP duration	CSP-duration in both hemispheres	+	+	No
Fisher et al. (2013)	16	PET, metabolic activity	Dorsal putamen	+	+	No
del Olmo et al.	13	PET, metabolic activity	Right cerebellum	+	+	No
			Right parietal lobe	+	+	No
			Right temporal lobe	+	+	No
				Volume change from pre to post-intervention
Sehm et al.	15	MRI	Right hemisphere of cerebellum	+	+	No

References in bold are of RCT design. Overall quality score assessed with the modified Down and Black checklist, ranging from 0 to 28 with higher scores indicating higher overall quality. Activity and volume indicate whether a change in respective measure increased (+) or decreased (−). Direction indicates change in neuroplastic marker from pre to post-intervention and states whether it was assessed as positive (+), negative (−), or unchanged (0). indicates whether the study was included in the meta-analysis (MA). as compared to healthy control group. Abbreviations: BDNF—Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor; TrkB—Tyrosine receptor kinase B; fMRI—Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; BOLD—Blood Oxygenated Level Dependent; EEG—Electroencephalogram; TMS—Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; CSP—Cortical Silent Period; PET—Positron Emission Tomography.