Eight-week stress management exercise program improves mental health and autonomic nervous system of adults exposed to chronic stress.

Background: This study investigated a stress management exercise program's effect on mental health, muscle pain, and autonomic nervous system activity in adults exposed to chronic stress.

Methods: Thirty mothers between 40 to 59 years old raising children with disabilities were equally allocated into the yoga (YG) or control group (CG). The YG participated in 16 prop-assisted yoga sessions twice weekly for eight weeks, focusing on relaxing and strengthening neck, shoulder, back, and waist stress-related muscles.

Changes in inhibitory control, craving and affect after yoga vs. aerobic exercise among smokers with nicotine dependence.

Objectives: This study investigated the acute effects of yoga and aerobic exercise on response inhibition and the underlying neural mechanisms in individuals with nicotine dependence, along with changes in craving and affect.

Materials And Methods: Study participants included 30 yoga-naïve adult smokers with moderate-to-high nicotine dependence. Based on a within-subjects design, all participants participated in three experimental sessions: baseline, 30-min yoga, and 30-min aerobic exercise; one session was conducted per day.

Affective Change With Variations in Zumba Fitness Intensity as Measured by a Smartwatch.

In this study we investigated affective changes during Zumba fitness program exercise with varied intensity, as measured by a smartwatch. Sixteen college students (4 males and 12 females) participated in two single-session Zumba fitness programs at low and moderate intensities separated by a one-week interval. During exercise, participants' heart rate (HR) and their responses to the Felt Arousal Scale (FAS) and the Feeling Scale (FS) were measured seven times (pre-exercise, warm-up, merengue, reggaeton, salsa, cumbia, and cool-down) using tailor-made applications on a smartwatch.

Effects of Stress and Task Difficulty on Working Memory and Cortical Networking.

This study investigated interactive effects of stress and task difficulty on working memory and cortico-cortical communication during memory encoding. Thirty-eight adolescent participants (mean age of 15.7 ± 1.

Cortical Functional Connections and Fluid Intelligence in Adolescent APOE ε4 Carriers.

Aims: This study examined differences in corticocortical communication between adolescent ε4 carriers (ε4+) and noncarriers (ε4-) during a fluid intelligence task (Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence [CTONI]).

Methods: Sixteen ε4+ and 20 ε4- individuals aged 13-15 years performed the CTONI while real-time EEG signals were acquired. Inter- and intrahemispheric coherences were analyzed.

Inter- and Intrahemispheric EEG Coherence and Visuomotor Performance During Shooting Competition and Practice.

This study compared inter- and intrahemispheric cortical networking and visuomotor performance during practice and competition in 14 air pistol athletes (mean age of 17.8 years). Participants self-reported their competitiveness, stress, confidence, and relaxation through visual analog scales; shooting score and aiming time were measured by the SCATT program.

An fMRI study of differences in brain activity among elite, expert, and novice archers at the moment of optimal aiming.

Objective: We investigated brain activity in elite, expert, and novice archers during a simulated archery aiming task to determine whether neural correlates of performance differ by skill level.

Background: Success in shooting sports depends on complex mental routines just before the shot, when the brain prepares to execute the movement.

Methods: During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 40 elite, expert, or novice archers aimed at a simulated 70-meter-distant target and pushed a button when they mentally released the bowstring.

An electrocortical comparison of elite shooters with and without disability during visuomotor performance.

The purpose was to investigate differences in cortical activation during air-pistol shooting between elite shooters with and without spinal cord injury. 22 non-disabled and 12 disabled members of national air-pistol shooting teams participated in the study. The participants completed 20 self-paced 10-m air pistol shots.

Brain activation patterns of motor imagery reflect plastic changes associated with intensive shooting training.

Evidence from previous studies has suggested that motor imagery and motor action engage overlapping brain systems. As a result of this observation that motor imagery can activate brain regions associated with actual motor movement, motor imagery is expected to enhance motor skill performance and become an underlying principle for physical training in sports and physical rehabilitation. However, few studies have examined the effects of physical training on motor imagery in beginners.

Neural correlates of motor imagery for elite archers.

Motor imagery is a mental rehearsal of simple or complex motor acts without overt body movement. It has been proposed that the association between performance and the mental rehearsal period that precedes the voluntary movement is an important point of difference between highly trained athletes and beginners. We compared the activation maps of elite archers and nonarchers during mental rehearsal of archery to test whether the neural correlates of elite archers were more focused and efficiently organised than those of nonarchers.

The influence of exercise intensity on frontal electroencephalographic asymmetry and self-reported affect.

The "feel better" effect of exercise has been well established, but the optimal intensity needed to elicit a positive affective response is controversial. In addition, the mechanisms underlying such a response are unclear To clarify these issues, female undergraduate students were monitored for electroencephalographic (EEG) and self-reported affective responses during the recovery period following rest, low, moderate, and high intensities of treadmill running, each lasting 30 min. Frontal EEG asymmetry and self-reported vigor scores following exercise at all three intensities were significantly elevated compared to those observed following rest.

Examining the exercise-affect dose-response relationship: does duration influence frontal EEG asymmetry?

The "feel better" effect of exercise has been well established, but the specific influence of exercise duration on affect has not been systematically studied from a multi-level measurement approach. Such an approach offers the opportunity to assess psychophysiological responses that relate to psychological state. One relevant response is the change in frontal brain processes indexed by anterior EEG asymmetry, which is related to approach-withdrawal orientation and affective state [Davidson, R.

Neural correlates of pre-performance routines in expert and novice archers.

The objective of the present study was to determine differences in neural networks between expert and novice archers during an archery pre-performance routine period (PPR). The experiment was conducted with eight world-class competitor or Olympic medalist archers and eight novices. In the experiment, the task was to shoot (by clicking a mouse with the right hand) if an archery target appeared on an LCD embedded in an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.