ArticleMedicine2021
Physical exercise keeps the brain connected by increasing white matter integrity in healthy controls.
Article in Medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of exercise intervention on smoking cessation: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Pooled it
- Exercise and Brain Health in Postmenopausal Women: A Review of Cognitive Benefits, Mechanisms, and Neurodegeneration Prevention.NeuroSci · 2026Review
- Linking dynamic cerebral autoregulation and inhibitory executive function: Role of modifiable behaviours.Experimental physiology · 2026Review
- The effect of physical activity on resilience of Chinese children: the chain mediating effect of executive function and emotional regulation.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Improvement of Fatigue and Body Composition in Women with Long COVID After Non-Aerobic Therapeutic Exercise Program.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Article
- Neurorehabilitation and white matter repair in traumatic spinal cord injury: a dialogue between clinical and preclinical studies.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Review
- White matter correlates of dissociation in a diverse sample of trauma-exposed women.Psychiatry research · 2024Article
- Effects of Adapted Physical Activity on White Matter Integrity in Patients with Schizophrenia.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Combined Ionizing Radiation Exposure by Gamma Rays and Carbon-12 Nuclei Increases Neurotrophic Factor Content and Prevents Age-Associated Decreases in the Volume of the Sensorimotor Cortex in Rats.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Pathways explaining racial/ethnic and socio-economic disparities in brain white matter integrity outcomes in the UK Biobank study.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- The Role of Physical Activity in Adjunctive Nursing Management of Neuro-Degenerative Diseases among Older Adults: A Systematic Review of Interventional Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Moderating role of physical activity on hippocampal iron deposition and memory outcomes in typically aging older adults.Neurobiology of aging · 2023Article
- Topography of associations between cardiovascular risk factors and myelin loss in the ageing human brain.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Exercise as therapy for neurodevelopmental and cognitive dysfunction in people with a Fontan circulation: A narrative review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Review
- Microstructural organization of the corpus callosum in young endurance athletes: A global tractography study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Evidence of White Matter Integrity Changes in the Anterior Cingulum Among Shift Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study.Nature and science of sleep · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
abstractPhysical exercise leads to structural changes in the brain. However, it is unclear whether the initiation or continuous practice of physical exercise causes this effect and whether brain connectivity benefits from exercise. We examined the effect of 6 months of exercise on the brain in participants who exercise regularly (n = 25) and in matched healthy controls (n = 20). Diffusion tensor imaging brain scans were obtained from both groups. Our findings demonstrate that regular physical exercise significantly increases the integrity of white matter fiber tracts, especially those related to frontal function. This implies that exercise improves brain connectivity in healthy individuals, which has important implications for understanding the effect of fitness programs on the brains of healthy subjects.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.