The effects of exercise interventions on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in children and adolescents:a meta-analysis

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is a crucial neurotrophic factor that plays a significant role in brain health. Although the vast majority of meta-analyses have confirmed that exercise interventions can increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in children and adolescents, the effects of specific types of exercise on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels are still controversial. To address this issue, we used meta-analytic methods to quantitatively evaluate, analyze, and integrate relevant studies. Our goals were to formulate general conclusions regarding the use of exercise interventions, explore the physiological mechanisms by which exercise improves brain health and cognitive ability in children and adolescents, and provide a reliable foundation for follow-up research. We used the Pub Med, Web of Science, Science Direct, Springer, Wiley Online Library, Weipu, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases to search for randomized controlled trials examining the influences of exercise interventions on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in children and adolescents. The extracted data were analyzed using Review Manager 5.3. According to the inclusion criteria, we assessed randomized controlled trials in which the samples were mainly children and adolescents, and the outcome indicators were measured before and after the intervention. We excluded animal experiments, studies that lacked a control group, and those that did not report quantitative results. The mean difference(MD;before versus after intervention) was used to evaluate the effect of exercise on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in children and adolescents. Overall, 531 participants(60 children and 471 adolescents, 10.9–16.1 years) were included from 13 randomized controlled trials. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the Q statistic and I^(2) test provided by Review Manager software. The meta-analysis showed that there was no heterogeneity among the studies(P = 0.67, I^(2) = 0.00%). The combined effect of the interventions was significant(MD = 2.88, 95% CI: 1.53–4.22, P < 0.0001), indicating that the brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels of the children and adolescents in the exercise group were significantly higher than those in the control group. In conclusion, different types of exercise interventions significantly increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in children and adolescents. However, because of the small sample size of this meta-analysis, more high-quality research is needed to verify our conclusions. This metaanalysis was registered at PROSPERO(registration ID: CRD42023439408).

Treatment Effects of Acupuncture and Calligraphy Training on Cognitive Abilities in Senile Demented Patients

Purpose:This study compared the relative effectiveness of Chinese calligraphy handwriting(CCH)and acupuncture in the treatment of patients with senile dementia.Materials and Methods:A randomized controlled trial(RCT)with 17 mild-to-moderate dementia patients with an average age of 77.29 years were randomly assigned with 9 to the calligraphy handwriting group and 8 to the acupuncture treatment group for a month of consecutive treatment.The participants'cognitive abilities,as well as symptoms of senile dementia,were measured by the Chinese version of the Mini-mental State Examination(CMMSE)and the Chinese Medicine Quantitative Diagnostic Survey for Senile Dementia Symptoms,respectively,before and after the treatment.Results:The calligraphy group showed a significant increase in calculation and memory as well as a decline in the symptoms of senile dementia.Patients in the acupuncture group experienced a significant growth in total CMMSE scores and the subscales in orientation to time and place,behavioral operations,as well as reduced clinical symptoms.However,no significant changes were found in their memory and calculation abilities.Conclusion:Both CCH and acupuncture treatments were found significantly effective for,respectively,enhancing the patients'cognitive abilities and reducing their clinical symptoms.Further,calligraphy handwriting also improved the level of their attention and concentration,physical relaxation,and emotional stability.

Dynamic Organization of Large-scale Functional Brain Networks Supports Interactions Between Emotion and Executive Control

Emotion and executive control are often conceptualized as two distinct modes of human brain functioning.Little,however,is known about how the dynamic organization of large-scale functional brain networks that support flexible emotion processing and executive control,especially their interactions.The amygdala and prefrontal systems have long been thought to play crucial roles in these processes.Recent advances in human neuroimaging studies have begun to delineate functional organization principles among the large-scale brain networks underlying emotion,executive control,and their interactions.Here,we propose a dynamic brain network model to account for interactive competition between emotion and executive control by reviewing recent resting-state and task-related neuroimaging studies using network-based approaches.In this model,dynamic interactions among the executive control network,the salience network,the default mode network,and sensorimotor networks enable dynamic processes of emotion and support flexible executive control of multiple processes;neural oscillations across multiple frequency bands and the locus coeruleus−norepinephrine pathway serve as communicational mechanisms underlying dynamic synergy among large-scale functional brain networks.This model has important implications for understanding how the dynamic organization of complex brain systems and networks empowers flexible cognitive and affective functions.

Deep tissue super-resolution imaging with adaptive optical two-photon multifocal structured illumination microscopy

Visualization of axons and dendritic spines is crucial in neuroscience research.However,traditional microscopy is limited by diffraction-limited resolution and shallow imaging depth,making it difficult to study neuronal dynamics.Two-photon multifocal structured illumination microscopy(2P-MSIM)provides super-resolution imaging along with a reasonably good penetration,but it is vulnerable to optical aberrations in deep tissues.Herein we present a novel non-inertial scanning 2P-MSIM system incorporated with adaptive optics(AO)which allows for super-resolution imaging with effective aberration correction.Our strategy is designed to correct both laser and fluorescence paths simultaneously using a spatial light modulator and a deformable mirror respectively,providing better results than the individual path corrections.The successful implementation of adaptive optical two-photon multifocal structured illumination microscopy(AO 2P-MSIM)has allowed for the super-resolution imaging of neuronal structures in a mouse brain slice at great depths and dynamic morphological characteristics of zebrafish motoneurons in vivo.

Network controllability analysis of awake and asleep conditions in the brain

The difference between sleep and wakefulness is critical for human health.Sleep takes up one third of our lives and remains one of the most mysterious con-ditions;it plays an important role in memory consoli-dation and health restoration.

Gender Role,But Not Sex,Shapes Humans’Susceptibility to Emotion

It is unknown whether the famous sex-related difference in emotion processing is accounted for by biological sex,gender role,or their interaction.To clarify the issue,in Study 1 we recorded event-related potentials in response to negative and positive images of diverse intensities when 47 masculine(26 males)and 47 feminine(22 males)subjects performed a non-emotional task.The occipital P1 and N1 amplitudes were larger in women than in men,while feminine subjects showed larger N1 amplitudes than masculine subjects,regardless of sex.Moreover,feminine subjects showed enhanced frontocentral N2(210–270 ms)amplitudes for highly and mildly negative than for neutral stimuli,while masculine subjects showed an emotion effect only for highly negative stimuli.The feminine-specific effect for mildly negative stimuli was positively correlated to the feminine score,and this correlation was located to the anterior cingulate and the superior and medial frontal gyri.Furthermore,feminine but not masculine subjects showed enhanced parietal P3(330–560 ms)amplitudes for highly and mildly positive than for neutral stimuli,an effect positively related to the feminine score and localized to the precuneus,posterior cingulate,and superior temporal gyrus.Machine learning analyses verified that single-trial N2 and P3 amplitudes of feminine subjects reliably discriminated the intensity of negative and positive stimuli,respectively.For ecological considerations,in Study 2 we used an observational approach(n=300)and confirmed that feminine gender role,rather than biological sex,predicted individual differences in daily experience of emotion-related psychopathological symptoms.These findings provide solid evidence for the critical impact of gender role rather than sex on emotional susceptibility.