Irene Esteban-Cornejo

Symposium Description

Exercise is considered an efficient, easy-accessible, and safe technique to target psychological health: It boosts performance in cognitive tasks and promotes positive mood states. However, the brain mechanisms by which exercise benefits cognition and mood are not yet sufficiently understood. This symposium brings together exercise neuroscience researchers dedicated to pinpointing the broad spectrum of brain adaptations associated with exercise. The overreaching goal of the session is to present how exercise-induced structural and functional brain changes might translate into improved cognition and mood. We will discuss the effects of single exercise sessions (acute interventions) and long-term interventions on the brain as well as the dependencies between physical fitness and brain outputs. The data presented will be derived from varied populations (children, healthy adults, depressed adults), acquired using diverse neuroimaging techniques (EEG, MEG, MRI), and analyzed under different approaches (e.g., ERPs, connectivity, resting-state MRI, fMRI). Overall, we hope that we will be able to present some of the critical brain mechanisms by which exercise benefits brain health - and consequently - boosts everyday functioning. We also hope that the symposium will encourage some listeners to be more physically active and to reap the presented benefits of exercise. The symposium is patronized by Charles Hillman, Ph.D. (Northeastern University, USA).

Talk: "The role of physical fitness on brain structure and function during childhood"

Using data from a Spanish study of children with overweight/obesity (i.e., ActiveBrains Project), we examined how different components of physical fitness (i.e., cardiorespiratory fitness, motor fitness and muscular strength) associate with brain structure (global and regional gray matter volume, surface and cortical thickness, global and regional white matter volume, and global and regional white matter microstructure) and brain function (hippocampal functional connectivity), and whether these associations had academic implications.
Our findings highlight physical fitness components seem to selectively influence brain structure and function, coupled with academic implications in children with overweight/obesity. Specifically, cardiorespiratory and motor fitness were associated with greater gray matter tissue of numerous cortical and subcortical brain structures, and better hippocampal functional connectivity; however, muscular strength seems to be the fitness component more susceptible and selective to influence white matter, but not gray matter indicators. This presentation will guide future studies on fitness and brain health during childhood.