ArticleScience advances2020
A neural mechanism for affective well-being: Subgenual cingulate cortex mediates real-life effects of nonexercise activity on energy.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07059234 (The Motor Activity - Subjective Energy), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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.
The Motor Activity - Subjective Energy (MASE) Project: Neurobiological and Digital Phenotyping Towards Digital Mental Health Interventions in Depression
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- An individual participant data meta-analysis of how physical activity relates to affective well-being in daily life.Nature human behaviour · 2026Pooled it
- The Within-Subject Association of Physical Behavior and Affective Well-Being in Everyday Life: A Systematic Literature Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Pooled it
- Physical activity and mood in daily life - a multi-burst ambulatory assessment study disentangling state and trait components of within-person associations.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Article
- Capturing affective states in everyday life - Comparing psychometric properties of two affect measures.Neuroscience applied · 2026Article
- Disentangling the effects of daily physical activity and natural white light exposure on affect.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Article
- Associations of Accelerometer-Measured Sedentary Behavior and Gray Matter Volume in Healthy Young Adults.European journal of sport science · 2025Article
- The Impact of Physical Activity on Negative Affect and Sleep Quality in Adolescents: Network Analysis.Psychology research and behavior management · 2025Article
- Early differences in lassitude predicts outcomes in Stanford Neuromodulation Therapy for difficult to treat depression.Npj mental health research · 2024Article
- [Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution: consequences for psychiatry].Der Nervenarzt · 2023Review
- Dose-dependent changes in real-life affective well-being in healthy community-based individuals with mild to moderate childhood trauma exposure.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2023Article
- The importance of high quality real-life social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Physical Activity and Depression in Adolescents: Evidence from China Family Panel Studies.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- [Digital life in a networked world: opportunities and risks for psychiatry].Der Nervenarzt · 2021Review
- The Influence of Living Conditions on Self-Rated Health: Evidence from China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Physical activity substantially improves well-being and mental health, but the underlying brain processes remain unclear. Most research concerns exercise, although the majority of everyday human behaviors, such as walking or stair climbing, are nonexercise activities. Combining neuroimaging with ecological assessment of activity and GPS-triggered smartphone diaries, we show a specific association of nonexercise activity with energy in two independent samples mediated by the subgenual part of the anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), a key emotion regulatory site. Furthermore, energy predicted a range of mental health metrics. sgACC volume moderated humans' emotional gain from nonexercise activity in real life: Individuals with low sgACC volume, a risk factor for depression, felt less energized when inactive but benefited more from periods of high nonexercise activity. This suggests an everyday life mechanism affecting affective well-being in the general population and, if substantiated in patient samples, a risk and resilience process for mood disorders.
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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.