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ObjectiveTo quantify the extent and duration exercise impacts cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulatory mechanisms: dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA), neurovascular coupling (NVC), and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR).DesignRandomized crossover.SettingControlled lab environment with university students.ParticipantsUsing a convenience sample, nine healthy subjects were recruited (age: 26 ± 5 years, BMI: 25 ± 4 kg/cm2).InterventionsAll individuals performed three conditions: 25-minutes high-intensity intervals (HIIT) (ten, one-minute intervals at ~85–90% heart-rate reserve), 45-minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (MICT) (at ~50–60% heart-rate reserve), and a control condition (30-minutes quiet rest).Outcome MeasuresSquat-stand maneuvers were utilized to measure dCA; a modified rebreathing technique and controlled step-wise hyperventilation quantified the hypercapnic and hypocapnic slopes of CVR, respectively; and a complex visual scene search paradigm indexed NVC. The aforementioned tests were completed at baseline and zero, one, two, four, six, and eight-hours following the three conditions.Main ResultsThe known cardiac cycle disparity in CBF regulation disappeared following both HIIT and MICT until hour six (p>0.06), indicative dCA was altered following exercise. The CVR hypercapnic slope was attenuated following both exercise conditions until hour two (p<0.02), whereas the hypocapnic slope was not affected (p>0.31). Finally, only HIIT resulted in a reduced activation of the NVC response (all p<0.05). There were no differences across the day within all control metrics (p>0.13).ConclusionsThese findings inform exercise-induced disruptions to CBF metrics, which highlights the time-courses required for future studies to consider when investigating CBF regulatory mechanisms immediately following sport-related concussions.