The effect of acute effort on EEG in healthy young and elderly subjects

Abstract

The effects of physical exercise on mental health have been extensively investigated, mainly in older people. Recent studies have looked into the acute effect of exercise on the brain using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA). We assessed EEG power and mood changes after 20 min of aerobic exercise in elderly (N = 10) and young (N = 19) healthy individuals. Both groups showed improvement in total mood disturbance (TMD) post exercise (young: P = 0.03; elderly: P = 0.02). Only the young group showed significant improvement in anger (P = 0.05) and vigor (P = 0.006). Comparison pre versus post-exercise for each group separately revealed significant changes in the young group (an increase in alpha, beta-1 and beta-2 activity in Brodmann areas 24, 33 and 23, respectively). However, the elderly group did not show significant changes. An inverse correlation was found between alpha asymmetry and STAI (rs = -0.50; P = 0.029) in the young group. On the other hand, a significant correlation between beta-1 activity and TMD was observed in the elderly group (rs = 0.67; P = 0.045). We conclude that acute exercise can have distinct effects on brain activity and mood variables in young individuals when compared with elderly adults. However, additional studies are necessary to further investigate the role of exercise intensity in these results.

Cerebrocortical activity during self-paced exercise in temperate, hot and hypoxic conditions

“…High-frequency EEG activity is suggested to reflect changes in physiological arousal, characterized by adjustments in heart rate, body temperature or metabolic rate. 39,40 Alterations in cerebrocortical activity during exercise are also suggested to stem from an increase in hyperventilation, 23 with a-and b-activity increasing with ventilation during graded exercise. 35 Of note, the visceral afferent feedback hypothesis predicts a decrease in cerebrocortical activity during intense exercise in response to neuroregulatory feedback to the central nervous system from the heart (i.e.…”

Acute exercise induces cortical inhibition and reduces arousal in response to visual stimulation in young children

“…Beta (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) and gamma (>30 Hz) oscillations are sensitive to a variety of sensory, motor, perceptual, emotional and cognitive processes and have been suggested to reflect cortical communication and binding of information (Engel and Fries, 2010;Fries, 2009). Previous studies using EEG to assess brain oscillations following acute exercise reported increases in alpha power following exercise (Boutcher and Landers, 1988;Fumoto et al, 2010;Kamijo et al, 2004;Kubitz and Mott, 1996;Brümmer et al, 2011;Schneider et al, 2009aSchneider et al, , 2009bMoraes et al, 2007Moraes et al, , 2011. The largest effects were observed in the alpha-1 frequency band (Crabbe and Dishman, 2004), suggesting that exercise reduces global arousal (Klimesch, 1999).…”

Characteristics of electrophysiological activity of the cerebral cortex in children with arthrogryposis

“…Такой вывод подтверждается увеличением мощности в альфа-диапазоне при повышенной общей двигательной активности [26,27]. Причем этот эффект проявляется тем существенней, чем моложе человек [28].…”