PurposeDespite the generally accepted view that aerobic exercise can have positive effects on brain health, few studies have measured brain responses to exercise over a short time span. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact within one hour of a single bout of exercise on brain perfusion and neuronal activation.MethodsHealthy adults (n = 16; age range: 20–35 yrs) were scanned using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) before and after 20 minutes of exercise at 70% of their age-predicted maximal heart rate. Pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pcASL) was used to measure absolute cerebral blood flow (CBF) prior to exercise (pre) and at 10 min (post-10) and 40 min (post-40) post-exercise. Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) was performed pre and post-exercise to characterize activation differences related to a go/no-go reaction time task.ResultsCompared to pre-exercise levels, grey matter CBF was 11% (±9%) lower at post-10 (P<0.0004) and not different at post-40 (P = 0.12), while global WM CBF was increased at both time points post-exercise (P<0.0006). Regionally, the hippocampus and insula showed a decrease in perfusion in ROI-analysis at post-10 (P<0.005, FDR corrected), whereas voxel-wise analysis identified elevated perfusion in the left medial postcentral gyrus at post-40 compared to pre (pcorrected = 0.05). BOLD activations were consistent between sessions, however, the left parietal operculum showed reduced BOLD activation after exercise.ConclusionThis study provides preliminary evidence of regionalized brain effects associated with a single bout of aerobic exercise. The observed acute cerebrovascular responses may provide some insight into the brain’s ability to change in relation to chronic interventions.

Habitual long term physical activity is known to have beneficial cognitive, structural, and neuro-protective brain effects, but to date there is limited knowledge on whether a single session of exercise can alter the brain’s functional connectivity, as assessed by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). The primary objective of this study was to characterize potential session effects in resting-state networks (RSNs). We examined the acute effects of exercise on the functional connectivity of young healthy adults (N = 15) by collecting rs-fMRI before and after 20 min of moderate intensity aerobic exercise and compared this with a no-exercise control group (N = 15). Data were analyzed using independent component analysis, denoising and dual regression procedures. Regions of interest-based group session effect statistics were calculated in RSNs of interest using voxel-wise permutation testing and Cohen’s D effect size. Group analysis in the exercising group data set revealed a session effect in sub-regions of three sensorimotor related areas: the pre and/or postcentral gyri, secondary somatosensory area and thalamus, characterized by increased co-activation after exercise (corrected p < 0.05). Cohen’s D analysis also showed a significant effect of session in these three RSNs (p< 0.05), corroborating the voxel-wise findings. Analyses of the no-exercise dataset produced no significant results, thereby providing support for the exercise findings and establishing the inherent test–retest reliability of the analysis pipeline on the RSNs of interest. This study establishes the feasibility of rs-fMRI to localize brain regions that are associated with acute exercise, as well as an analysis consideration to improve sensitivity to a session effect.