Figure 3.

Illustration of the protocol for assessing the effect of severe exercise on ocular dominance plasticity as a result of short-term monocular deprivation. Subjects (n = 10) are monocularly patched while cycling (10 min cycling, 10 min rest) and watching a movie for 2 hours (a). The exercise raises the heat rate by around 80% of its estimated maximum age-related heart rate (b). The change in ocular dominance as a result of the monocular deprivation is compared for the baseline (resting condition: black lines/open circles) and exercise condition (red lines/filled squares) (c). The computed areal change (degrees × minutes) is compared for each subject at rest and after exercise; the open square symbol is the group mean ± SD (d).