Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.
Psychophysiology. 2023 Nov;60(11):e14357. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14357. Epub 2023 Jun 12.
The well-elucidated improvement of mood immediately after exercise in older adults presumably involves adaptations in emotion-processing brain networks. However, little is known about effects of acute exercise on appetitive and aversive emotion-related network recruitment in older adults. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of acute exercise, compared to a seated rest control condition, on pleasant and unpleasant emotion-related regional activation in healthy older adults. Functional MRI data were acquired from 32 active older adults during blocked presentations of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant images from the International Affective Pictures System. fMRI data were collected after participants completed 30 min of moderate to vigorous intensity cycling or seated rest, performed in a counterbalanced order across separate days in a within-subject design. The findings suggest three ways that emotional processing in the brain may be different immediately after exercise (relative to immediately after rest): First, reduced demands on emotional regulation during pleasant emotional processing as indicated by lower precuneus activation for pleasant stimuli; second, reduced processing of negative emotional stimuli in visual association areas as indicated by lower activation for unpleasant stimuli in the bilateral fusiform and ITG; third, an increased recruitment in activation associated with regulating/inhibiting unpleasant emotional processing in the bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), angular gyri, supramarginal gyri, left cerebellar crus I/II and a portion of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Overall, these findings support that acute exercise in active older adults alters activation in key emotional processing and regulating brain regions.
老年人运动后情绪明显改善，可能涉及情绪处理脑网络的适应性改变。然而，关于急性运动对老年人的食欲和厌恶情绪相关网络募集的影响知之甚少。本研究旨在确定与静坐休息对照条件相比，急性运动对健康老年人愉快和不愉快情绪相关区域激活的影响。功能性磁共振成像 (fMRI) 数据来自 32 名活跃的老年人，在国际情感图片系统中呈现愉快、中性和不愉快图像的块呈现期间采集 fMRI 数据。在参与者完成 30 分钟中等至剧烈强度的自行车运动或静坐休息后，在一项基于个体的设计中，以平衡的方式在不同的日子进行采集。研究结果表明，大脑中情绪处理可能在运动后立即（相对于休息后立即）有三种不同的方式：第一，愉快情绪处理过程中情绪调节需求降低，表现为愉快刺激的楔前叶激活降低；第二，负性情绪刺激在视觉联合区的处理减少，表现为双侧梭状回和颞中回对不愉快刺激的激活降低；第三，与调节/抑制不愉快情绪处理相关的激活区域的招募增加，涉及双侧额上回内侧（背侧前额叶皮质）、角回、缘上回、左侧小脑 crus I/II 和右侧背外侧前额叶皮质的一部分。总的来说，这些发现支持在活跃的老年人中进行急性运动可以改变关键的情绪处理和调节大脑区域的激活。
