ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2016
Acute Modulation of Cortical Glutamate and GABA Content by Physical Activity.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 106 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
106 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 180 citations in OpenAlex.
- A contextual genomic perspective on physical activity and its relationship to health, well being and illness.Nature genetics · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and hematological markers of tDCS combined with aerobic exercise in improving executive function in patients with PSCI.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Trial
- Differential effects of caffeine, acute aerobic exercise, and placebo on mental fatigue.PloS one · 2026Trial
- The bidirectional modulation of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive performance and brain electrical activity in adolescents with smartphone addiction: an experimental study using EEG power spectrum analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Trial
- Modulating Brain Excitability with Cardiovascular Exercise in Chronic Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2025Trial
- Interleaved periods of exercise do not enhance visual perceptual learning.Journal of vision · 2025Trial
- Strength gains after 12 weeks of resistance training correlate with neurochemical markers of brain health in older adults: a randomized controlGeroScience · 2023Trial
- Effects of Online Bodyweight High-Intensity Interval Training Intervention and Health Education on the Mental Health and Cognition of Sedentary Young Females.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Effects of pulmonary rehabilitation on the perception of happiness in individuals with COPD: A randomized clinical trial.Brazilian journal of physical therapyTrial
- Primitive-Reflex Profiling After Sport-Related Concussion: An Athlete-Centered Framework for Testing a Candidate Behavioral State Marker.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Exercise-induced neuropeptidergic and neurochemical neuroadaptation in stress regulation and emotional disorders.Acta neurologica Belgica · 2026Review
- The effects of physical exercise on inflammation-induced maladaptive neuroplasticity in post-traumatic headache.Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Epilepsy and exercise: a narrative review on the crucial role of neurosteroids in modulating GABAergic neurotransmission.Brain communications · 2026Review
- Review
- Primitive reflexes as candidate quantitative readouts of hierarchical inhibitory control across the lifespan.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Physical activity and improvement of physiological parameters by training.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Review
- Neurochemical changes in GABA+, Glx, and the excitatory/inhibitory ratio in the calcarine cortex with healthy aging.NeuroImage · 2025Article
- Rapid antidepressant effect of single-bout exercise is mediated by adiponectin-induced APPL1 nucleus translocation in anterior cingulate cortex.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Ecdysterone and High-Intensity Interval Training Mitigate Alzheimer's Pathology in Rats: Impacts on Depression, Synaptic Plasticity, and Neuroinflammation.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Virtual sailing exercise to improve major depressive disorder: A pilot clinical trial protocol.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2025Article
46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Converging evidence demonstrates that physical activity evokes a brain state characterized by distinctive changes in brain metabolism and cortical function. Human studies have shown that physical activity leads to a generalized increase in electroencephalography power across regions and frequencies, and a global increase in brain nonoxidative metabolism of carbohydrate substrates. This nonoxidative consumption of carbohydrate has been hypothesized to include increased de novo synthesis of amino acid neurotransmitters, especially glutamate and GABA. Here, we conducted a series of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies in human volunteers before and after vigorous exercise (≥80% of predicted maximal heart rate). Results showed that the resonance signals of both glutamate and GABA increased significantly in the visual cortex following exercise. We further demonstrated a similar increase in glutamate following exercise in an executive region, the anterior cingulate cortex. The increase in glutamate was similar when using echo times of 30 and 144 ms, indicating that exercise-related T2 relaxation effects across this range of relaxation times did not account for the findings. In addition, we found preliminary evidence that more physical activity during the preceding week predicts higher resting glutamate levels. Overall, the results are consistent with an exercise-induced expansion of the cortical pools of glutamate and GABA, and add to a growing understanding of the distinctive brain state associated with physical activity. A more complete understanding of this brain state may reveal important insights into mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of physical exercise in neuropsychiatric disorders, neurorehabilitation, aging, and cognition.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.