ArticleFrontiers in physiology2023
Changes in stress pathways as a possible mechanism of aerobic exercise training on brain health: a scoping review of existing studies.
Article in Frontiers in physiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative efficacy of various exercise types and doses for anxiety in older adults: A network and dose-response meta-analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2026Pooled it
- The effect of mental training on muscle damage, stress, and immune response biomarkers in tennis athletes.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Effects of a year-long aerobic exercise intervention on neuroendocrine, autonomic, and neural correlates of stress, emotion, and cardiovascular disease risk in midlife adults.Journal of sport and health science · 2026Article
- Physical Activity, Metabolic Risk and the Primary Allostatic Load Mediators: An Explorative Study.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Training Load Oscillation and Epigenetic Plasticity: Molecular Pathways Connecting Energy Metabolism and Athletic Personality.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Aerobic exercise for substance use disorders: therapeutic effects and underlying mechanisms.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- The moderating effect of lifetime physical activity on brain alterations related to adverse childhood experiences.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Neuro-Nutrition and Exercise Synergy: Exploring the Bioengineering of Cognitive Enhancement and Mental Health Optimization.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Investigating the effects of a randomized, double-blinded aerobic, resistance, and cognitive training clinical trial on neurocognitive function in older adults with cardiovascular risk factors: the ACTIONcardioRisk protocol.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- How does exercise regulate the physiological responses of post traumatic stress disorder? the crosstalk between oxidative stress and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- Evidence for food-related and non-food-related maladaptive preference in a mouse model of binge eating disorder.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- The Role of Physical Fitness in Emotional Well-Being and Distress during Pregnancy: The GESTAFIT Project.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Sensory Nutrition and Bitterness and Astringency of Polyphenols.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Physical activity attenuates the association between allostatic load and early Alzheimer's disease-related biomarkers in older adults.Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Physical activity (PA) in the form of aerobic exercise (AE) preserves and improves neurocognitive function across the lifespan. However, a mechanistic understanding of the pathways by which aerobic exercise impacts brain health is still lacking, particularly with respect to stress-related pathways. One mechanistic hypothesis is that AE improves neurocognitive health in part by modifying circulating levels of stress-related hormones and signaling factors associated with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS), as commonly measured by the biomarkers cortisol (CORT) and salivary α-amylase (sAA). Thus, this hypothesis predicts that changes in stress biomarkers, such as CORT and sAA, are possible explanatory pathways mediating the positive effects of AE on neurocognitive health. In the present review article, we provide a summary of available studies examining the possibility that exercise-induced changes to stress biomarkers could partly account for exercise-related improvements in neurocognitive health. Our review indicates that despite the intuitive appeal of this hypothesis, there is insufficient evidence available to conclude that chronic and habitual AE affects neurocognitive health by altering stress biomarker pathways. The cross-sectional nature of the majority of reviewed studies highlights the need for well-controlled studies to adequately test this hypothesis.
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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.