Depression is a common mental disorder characterized by high incidence, high disability, and high fatality, causing great burden to the society, families, and individuals. The changes in brain plasticity may be a main reason for depression. Recent studies have shown that exercise plays a positive role in depression, but systematic and comprehensive studies are lacking on brain plasticity changes in depression. To further understand the antidepressive effect of exercise and the changes in brain plasticity, we retrieved related literatures using key words “depression,” “depressive disorder,” “exercise,” “brain plasticity,” “brain structure,” and “brain function” from the database of Web of Science, PubMed, EBSCO host, and CNKI, hoping to provide evidence for exercise in preventing and treating depression. Increase in exercise has been found negatively correlated with the risk of depression. Randomized controlled experiments have shown that aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, and mind‐body exercise can improve depressive symptoms and levels. The intensity and long‐term effect of exercise are now topical research issues. Exercise has been proven to reshape the brain structure of depression patients, activate the function of related brain areas, promote behavioral adaptation changes, and maintain the integrity of hippocampal and white matter volume, thus improving the brain neuroprocessing and delaying cognitive degradation in depression patients. Future studies are urgently needed to establish accurate exercise prescriptions for improving depressive symptoms, and studies on different depressive populations and studies using multimodal brain imaging combined with multiple analytical methods are also needed.

Background Depression is widespread among adolescents and seriously endangers their quality of life and academic performance. Developing strategies for adolescent depression has important public health implications. No systematic review on the effectiveness of physical exercise for adolescents aged 12–18 years with depression or depressive symptoms has previously been conducted. This study aims to systematically evaluate the effect of physical exercise on adolescent depression in the hope of developing optimum physical exercise programs. Methods Nine major databases at home and abroad were searched to retrieve randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on exercise interventions among adolescents with depression or depressive symptoms. The retrieval period started from the founding date of each database to May 1, 2021. The methodological quality of the included articles was evaluated using the modified PEDro scale. A meta-analysis, subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and publication bias tests were then conducted. Results Fifteen articles, involving 19 comparisons, with a sample size of 1331, were included. Physical exercise significantly reduced adolescent depression (standardized mean difference [SMD] = − 0.64, 95% CI − 0.89, − 0.39, p < 0.01), with a moderate effect size, in both adolescents with depression (SMD = -0.57, 95% CI − 0.90, − 0.23, p < 0.01) and adolescents with depressive symptoms (SMD = − 0.67, 95% CI − 1.00, − 0.33, p < 0.01). In subgroups of different depression categories (depression or depressive symptoms), aerobic exercise was the main form of exercise for the treatment of adolescents with depression. For adolescents with depression, interventions lasting 6 weeks, 30 min/time, and 4 times/week had optimum results. The effects of aerobic exercise and resistance + aerobic exercise in the subgroup of adolescents with depressive symptoms were significant, while the effect of physical and mental exercise (yoga) was not significant. For adolescents with depressive symptoms, aerobic exercise lasting 8 weeks, 75–120 min/time, and 3 times/week had optimum results. Physical exercise with moderate intensity is a better choice for adolescents with depression and depressive symptoms. Conclusions Physical exercise has a positive effect on the improvement of depression in adolescents. The protocol for this study was registered with INPLASY (202170013). DOI number is 10.37766/inplasy2021.7.0013. Registration Date:2021.7.06.

Background This systematic and meta-analytic review aimed to investigate the effects of physical exercise on the working memory of older adults, and to identify the moderators of these effects. Methods We searched six electronic databases for randomized controlled trials on the effects of physical exercise on working memory that were published before or on May 15, 2020. The PEDro scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies. Stata 14.0 software was used to perform the meta-analysis, subgroup analysis, and publication bias testing. Results A total of 28 studies and 2156 participants were included. The methodological quality of the included studies was fair to excellent, and there was no publication bias. Overall, we found that physical exercise had a significant effect on working memory in older adults (standardized mean difference = 0.30, p < 0.0001). The effects of physical exercise on working memory were moderated by exercise frequency, intensity, type, duration, cognitive status, and control subgroup (active/passive), but not by intervention period or age of participant. Conclusion Physical exercise can effectively improve the working memory of older adults. The recommended physical exercise is multi-component exercise or mind–body exercise of moderate intensity for 45–60 min 3 times a week, for more than 6 months.

This systematic and meta-analytic review aimed to investigate the effects of Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) on the cognitive function of the elderly with cognitive impairment and to analyze the moderators of these effects. We searched eight electronic databases for randomized controlled trials on the effects of TCC on cognitive function, published up to June 14, 2020. The PEDro scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included literature. Stata14.0 software was used for meta-analysis, subgroup analysis, and publication bias testing. A total of 19 studies and 1,970 samples were included. The methodological quality of the included literature was fair to good, and there was no publication bias. Overall, the research shows that the effect of TCC on the elderly with cognitive impairment is statistically significant (SMD = 0.31, p < 0.0001 ). Five of the cognitive function subdomains were significant moderators [Q (5) = 15.66, p = 0.008 ], and the effect size (ES) was the largest for global cognitive function (SMD = 0.41), followed by executive function (SMD = 0.33), memory (SMD = 0.31), and verbal fluency (SMD = 0.27). Regarding the exercise prescription variables, results were significantly moderated by the length of exercise training [Q (2) = 6.00, p = 0.05 ], with ESs largest for moderate length (SMD = 0.41), followed by short length (SMD = 0.40) and long length (SMD = 0.29). However, the results were not moderated by session time or frequency. TCC can improve multiple cognitive functions of the elderly with cognitive impairment. The intervention effects are moderated by exercise length, but not by exercise session time and frequency.

Review question / Objective: Objective: To compare the intervention effect of multiple acute movement formulas on the executive function in middle-aged and senior people and to provide references for the discussion of the plans for precise movements. P: middle-aged and senior people elderly people; I: acute exercise; C: reading or sitting; O: Executive Function; S: RCT/crossover. Information sources: Randomized searches were carried out in Chinese databases such as CNKI, Wanfang Database, VTTMS, SinoMed and foreign databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science. The retrieval period is from the beginning of each database to August 2021, supplemented with manual searches for gray literature and references traced back to previous systematic reviews.

Background Proficiency in gross motor skills (GMS) lays the foundation for developing more complex motor skills. Improving these motor skills may provide enhanced opportunities for the development of a variety of perceptual, social, and cognitive skills. However, GMS development and intervention effects are not ideal for many non-typically developing children. Objective To systematically evaluate the effect of active video games on the development of gross motor skills in non-typically developing children and adolescents. Methods Seven Chinese and English databases were searched for randomized controlled trials, and the risk of bias in included studies were qualitative evaluation according to the revised Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised trials (RoB 2). Then a meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the overall effect of active video games on the development of gross motor skills in non-typically developing children. Results Twenty papers were included. In the three subordinate concepts of gross motor skills, active video games significantly improved locomotor skills [ SMD = 0.59, 95% CI (0.40, 0.77)] and non-locomotor skills [SMD = 0.51, 95% CI (0.20, 0.81)] in non-typically developing children. However, there was no significant difference compared with the control group [ SMD = 0.32, 95% CI (− 0.17, 0.82)] in object control skills. Conclusions The study shows that active video games can improve locomotor skill and stability skill in non-typically developing children, but the effect on object control skill is uncertain, and more high-quality literature needs to be included in the future. Trial registration The meta-analysis was registered on INPLASY (202,250,124) and is available in full on inplasy.com (https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2022-5-0124/).

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To systematically evaluate the intervention effect of physical exercise on adolescent depression. Condition being studied: Retrieved randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on p h y s i c a l e x e r c i s e i n t e r v e n t i o n i n adolescent depression in nine majorelectronic databases at home and abroad. The search time limit was from the beginning year of inclusion in each database to December 31, 2020. The included literature was evaluated using the PEDro scale. Methodological quality assessment, using Stata16.0 software for INPLASY 1