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Physical activity induces brain and behavioral changes in adolescents with subthreshold mood syndromes: A randomized controlled trial study
Date Issued
2019
Conference
Citation
Lam, Y. H., Wong, M. N. K., Xu, G., Lu, W., Gao, Y., Chen, K., Wang, S., Xie, L. Xu, X., Liu, J., Zheng, W., Miao, Q., Huang, Y., Guan, L., & So, K. F. Lin, K. (2019 Oct 17). Physical activity induces brain and behavioral changes in adolescents with subthreshold mood syndromes: A randomized controlled trial study. S4SN 2019 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Background: Prior literature have supported that physical exercise intervention is
effective in enhancing various behavioural domains including cognition in
adolescents. The present study aimed to examine the neural and cognitiveemotional changes after physical exercise intervention in adolescents with
subthreshold mood syndromes. Method: Thirty nine adolescents with subthreshold mood syndromes were recruited (Mage = 12.64 years; 16 males) to
participate in this study. Twenty one participants were randomly assigned to
intervention group (aerobic exercise running) while 18 were assigned to control
group (group activities). Both groups underwent cognitive and emotional
assessments, as well as the structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMRI)
before and after the intervention or group activities. Results: The repeatedmeasures t-test results showed that the Group x Time interaction effect was
significant in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) gray matter volume
(GMV) (p= 0.03), left rostral anterior cingulate GMV (p= 0.02) and right rostral
anterior cingulate cortical thickness (p= 0.01). The correlational results showed
that the change in cognitive and emotional aspects were moderately and
significantly correlated with the change in left rostral anterior cingulate
GMV/cortical thickness (rs= -0.57) and left and right mOFC GMV/cortical thickness (rs= -0.50 to -0.54) in the intervention group while these correlations
were not significant in the control group. Conclusion: The present findings suggest
that after physical exercise intervention, there are structural brain changes
specifically in the mOFC and rostral anterior cingulate (cognitive-emotional
related brain regions) and these structural brain changes are coupled with the
behavioural changes in adolescents. In summary, these findings can help us
better understand the neural mechanism of the cognitive- emotional
improvements induced by physical activity in adolescents.
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