title: Acute aerobic exercise increases cortical activity during working memory: a functional MRI study in female college students.
abstract: There is increasing evidence that acute aerobic exercise is associated with improved cognitive function. However, neural correlates of its cognitive plasticity remain largely unknown. The present study examined the effect of a session of acute aerobic exercise on working memory task-evoked brain activity as well as task performance. A within-subjects design with a counterbalanced order was employed. Fifteen young female participants (M = 19.56, SD = 0.81) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a working memory task, the N-back task, both following an acute exercise session with 20 minutes of moderate intensity and a control rest session. Although an acute session of exercise did not improve behavioral performance, we observed that it had a significant impact on brain activity during the 2-back condition of the N-back task. Specifically, acute exercise induced increased brain activation in the right middle prefrontal gyrus, the right lingual gyrus, and the left fusiform gyrus as well as deactivations in the anterior cingulate cortexes, the left inferior frontal gyrus, and the right paracentral lobule. Despite the lack of an effect on behavioral measures, significant changes after acute exercise with activation of the prefrontal and occipital cortexes and deactivation of the anterior cingulate cortexes and left frontal hemisphere reflect the improvement of executive control processes, indicating that acute exercise could benefit working memory at a macro-neural level. In addition to its effects on reversing recent obesity and disease trends, our results provide substantial evidence highlighting the importance of promoting physical activity across the lifespan to prevent or reverse cognitive and neural decline.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China; Physical Education and Health School, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Men
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Athletics and Coaching Science, National Taiwan Sport University, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Kai
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Ming-Xia
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China; Physical Education and Health School, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Liu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Gao-Xia
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult