Physical Activity and Mental Health

A single instance of exercise improves cognitive task performance especially in regard to reaction time. Cycling and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) were found to be particularly beneficial.

Identifying modifiable risk factors that could prevent depression is important. Here, the authors show increased risks of incident depression in pre-frail and frail individuals and highlight the mediating role of brain structure and inflammation.

The benefits of different leisure activities for different aspects of aging remain unclear. Here, authors show that performing physical or creative activities is associated with important aging metrics and could help to prevent age-related decline.

In a large-scale UK Biobank study of multimodal brain imaging and physiological markers, the authors find brain-mediated patterns of organ function and lifestyle pathways that are predictive of specific mental health outcomes.

Physical activity has the potential to combat the negative mental health effects of social isolation. Its benefit is particularly high in people at increased neural and psychological risk for affective disorders.