The influence of microgravity on cerebral blood flow and electrocortical activity.

Changes in gravity conditions have previously been reported to influence brain hemodynamics as well as neuronal activity. This paper attempts to identify a possible link between changes in brain blood flow and neuronal activity during microgravity. Middle cerebral artery flow velocity (MCAv) was measured using Doppler ultrasound.

Correction to: Barriers and facilitating factors in the prevention of diabetes type II and gestational diabetes in vulnerable groups: protocol for a scoping review.

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported an error in Table 1 as the wrong table was used.

Barriers and facilitating factors in the prevention of diabetes type II and gestational diabetes in vulnerable groups: protocol for a scoping review.

Background: There is a significant worldwide increase in type 2 diabetes mellitus and gestational diabetes (T2DM/GDM) linked to a range of associated comorbidities and rising healthcare costs. It has been shown that an increase in physical activity, healthy nutrition, and weight loss may prevent or delay T2DM/GDM manifestation. Despite this, it remains a key challenge to reach various populations, in particular so-called vulnerable groups, mostly with a migration background and/or low socio-economic status.

Bubble Formation in Children and Adolescents after Two Standardised Shallow Dives.

Circulating venous bubbles after dives are associated with symptoms of decompression sickness in adults. Up to now it is not known to what extent children and adolescents are subjected to a bubble formation during their shallow dives and if there are possible indications for that. The aim of this pilot study is to investigate whether bubbles and/or symptoms occur after standardised repeated dives performed by young divers.

An Augmented Perceptual-Cognitive Intervention Using a Pattern Recall Paradigm With Junior Soccer Players.

In sport, perceptual skill training software is intended to assist tactical training in the field. The aim of this field study was to test whether "laboratory-based" pattern recall training would augment tactical skill training performed on the field. Twenty-six soccer players between 14 and 16 years of age from a single team participated in this study and were divided into three groups.

The pre-stimulus oscillatory alpha phase affects neural correlates of early visual perception.

A growing number of studies suggest the phase of ongoing alpha oscillations in the brain influences visual perception. However, it remained largely unconsidered if this is associated with a phase dependence of neurophysiological processes especially in the visual cortex. Therefore, this study investigated the link between the pre-stimulus oscillatory alpha phase and neural correlates of early visual perception.

Mechanisms and modulators of cognitive training gain transfer in cognitively healthy aging: study protocol of the AgeGain study.

Background: Cognitively healthy older people can increase their performance in cognitive tasks through training. However, training effects are mostly limited to the trained task; thus, training effects only poorly transfer to untrained tasks or other contexts, which contributes to reduced adaptation abilities in aging. Stabilizing transfer capabilities in aging would increase the chance of persistent high performance in activities of daily living including longer independency, and prolonged active participation in social life.

Temporal dissociation between muscle and pulmonary oxygen uptake kinetics: influences of perfusion dynamics and arteriovenous oxygen concentration differences in muscles and lungs.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to test whether or not the arteriovenous oxygen concentration difference (avDO) kinetics at the pulmonary (avDOpulm) and muscle (avDOmusc) levels is significantly different during dynamic exercise.

Methods: A re-analysis involving six publications dealing with kinetic analysis was utilized with an overall sample size of 69 participants. All studies comprised an identical pseudorandom binary sequence work rate (WR) protocol-WR changes between 30 and 80 W-to analyze the kinetic responses of pulmonary ([Formula: see text]) and muscle ([Formula: see text]) oxygen uptake kinetics as well as those of avDOpulm and avDOmusc.

The athletes' visuomotor system - Cortical processes contributing to faster visuomotor reactions.

Many sports require athletes to rapidly transform visual information into a targeted motor response, a process referred to as visuomotor reaction. On the behavioural level, athletes have long been established to achieve faster simple visuomotor reaction times when compared to non-athletes. However, although the superior performance in athletes has been attributed to the central nervous system, the underlying neural mechanisms remained poorly studied.

Lactate kinetics in handcycling under various exercise modalities and their relationship to performance measures in able-bodied participants.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to expand exercise testing in handcycling by (1) examining different approaches to determine lactate kinetics in handcycling under various exercise modalities and (2) identifying relationships between parameters of lactate kinetics and selected performance measures.

Methods: Twelve able-bodied nationally competitive triathletes performed a familiarisation, a sprint test, an incremental step test, and a continuous load trial at a power output corresponding to a lactate concentration (La) of 4 mmol l (PO) in a racing handcycle that was mounted on an ergometer. During the tests, La and heart rate (HR) were determined.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Cognitive Function are Positively Related Among Participants with Mild and Subjective Cognitive Impairment.

Background: By 2030, about 74 million people will be diagnosed with dementia, and many more will experience subjective (SCI) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). As physical inactivity has been identified to be a strong modifiable risk factor for dementia, exercise and physical activity (PA) may be important parameters to predict the progression from MCI to dementia, but might also represent disease trajectory modifying strategies for SCI and MCI.

Objective: A better understanding of the relationship between activity, fitness, and cognitive function across the spectrum of MCI and SCI would provide an insight into the potential utility of PA and fitness as early markers, and treatment targets to prevent cognitive decline.

Executive control processes are associated with individual fitness outcomes following regular exercise training: blood lactate profile curves and neuroimaging findings.

Cardiovascular training has been associated with neuroimaging correlates of executive control functions (ECF) in seniors and children/adolescents, while complementary studies in middle-aged populations are lacking. Ascribing a prominent role to cardiorespiratory fitness improvements, most studies concentrated on training-induced gains in maximal oxygen uptake (VOmax), although other fitness indices may provide complementary information. Here, we investigated the impact of long-term sub-maximal exercise training on interference control, considering individual training-induced shifts in blood lactate profile curves (BLC) and VOmax.

Retention of gait stability improvements over 1.5 years in older adults: effects of perturbation exposure and triceps surae neuromuscular exercise.

The plantarflexors play a crucial role in recovery from sudden disturbances to gait. The objective of this study was to investigate whether medium (months)- or long(years)-term exercise-induced enhancement of triceps surae (TS) neuromuscular capacities affects older adults' ability to retain improvements in reactive gait stability during perturbed walking acquired from perturbation training sessions. Thirty-four adult women (65 ± 7 yr) were recruited to a perturbation training group ( n = 13) or a group that additionally completed 14 wk of TS neuromuscular exercise ( n = 21), 12 of whom continued with the exercise for 1.

Effects of triceps surae muscle strength and tendon stiffness on the reactive dynamic stability and adaptability of older female adults during perturbed walking.

This study aimed to examine whether the triceps surae (TS) muscle-tendon unit (MTU) mechanical properties affect gait stability and its reactive adaptation potential to repeated perturbation exposure in older adults. Thirty-four older adults each experienced eight separate unexpected perturbations during treadmill walking, while a motion capture system was used to determine the margin of stability (MoS) and base of support (BoS). Ankle plantar flexor muscle strength and Achilles tendon (AT) stiffness were analyzed using ultrasonography and dynamometry.

Real World Recruiting of Older Subjects with Mild Cognitive Impairment for Exercise Trials: Community Readiness is Pivotal.

Prevention trials in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), especially lifestyle interventions, can be difficult to carry out, particularly the recruitment and retention of subjects. We experienced these challenges in our multi-site one-year exercise trial in MCI, NeuroExercise. Trial recruitment rates differed significantly across sites; the non-medical sport university site, providing free access to a range of group exercise in a sports environment, proved far more successful than memory clinics linked to hospitals.

The acute angiogenic signalling response to low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction.

This study investigated protein kinase activation and gene expression of angiogenic factors in response to low-load resistance exercise with or without blood flow restriction (BFR). In a repeated measures cross-over design, six males performed four sets of bilateral knee extension exercise at 20% 1RM (reps per set = 30:15:15:continued to fatigue) with BFR (110 mmHg) and without (CON). Muscle biopsies were obtained from the vastus lateralis before, 2 and 4 h post-exercise.

The effects of exercise intensity and post-exercise recovery time on cortical activation as revealed by EEG alpha peak frequency.

Acute physical exercise (APE) induces an increase in the individual alpha peak frequency (iAPF), a cortical parameter associated with neural information processing speed. The aim of this study was to further scrutinize the influence of different APE intensities on post-exercise iAPF as well as its time course after exercise cessation. 95 healthy young (18-35 years) subjects participated in two randomized controlled experiments (EX1 and EX2).

Tracking the Reorganization of Module Structure in Time-Varying Weighted Brain Functional Connectivity Networks.

Identification of module structure in brain functional networks is a promising way to obtain novel insights into neural information processing, as modules correspond to delineated brain regions in which interactions are strongly increased. Tracking of network modules in time-varying brain functional networks is not yet commonly considered in neuroscience despite its potential for gaining an understanding of the time evolution of functional interaction patterns and associated changing degrees of functional segregation and integration. We introduce a general computational framework for extracting consensus partitions from defined time windows in sequences of weighted directed edge-complete networks and show how the temporal reorganization of the module structure can be tracked and visualized.

Non-invasive estimation of muscle oxygen uptake kinetics with pseudorandom binary sequence and step exercise responses.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to test for significant differences in non-invasively estimated muscle oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text]) kinetics, assessed by a square-wave exercise protocol (STEP) as well as by a time series approach with pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) work rate (WR) changes.

Methods: Seventeen healthy and active individuals (10 women, 7 men; 23 ± 2 years old; height 175 ± 11 cm; body mass 73 ± 14 kg [mean ± SD]) completed five repetitions of WR transitions from 30 to 80 W for the STEP approach and two sequences of pseudorandom binary WR changes between 30 and 80 W for the PRBS approach. Pulmonary oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text]) was measured breath by breath.

Visual but not motor processes predict simple visuomotor reaction time of badminton players.

The athlete's brain exhibits significant functional adaptations that facilitate visuomotor reaction performance. However, it is currently unclear if the same neurophysiological processes that differentiate athletes from non-athletes also determine performance within a homogeneous group of athletes. This information can provide valuable help for athletes and coaches aiming to optimize existing training regimes.

Exercise-induced changes in EEG alpha power depend on frequency band definition mode.

In the majority of studies investigating cortical alpha oscillations the alpha frequency is defined as a fixed band thus, neglecting recommendations in the EEG literature to adjust the alpha band according to the individual alpha peak frequency (iAPF). Based on our previous findings indicating exhaustive exercise induces an increase of the post-exercise iAPF, we scrutinized the influence of exercise on post-exercise alpha power by comparing fixed and iAPF-adjusted alpha frequency bands. Resting EEG was recorded from 13 scalp locations in nine subjects before, immediately after as well as ten minutes following an exhaustive exercise protocol on a cycle ergometer.

Oxygen uptake kinetics following six weeks of interval and continuous endurance exercise training - An explorative pilot study.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to compare the responses of pulmonary (V˙Opulm) and muscle (V˙Omusc) oxygen uptake kinetics before (PRE) and after (POST) six weeks of endurance exercise training.

Methods: Nine untrained individuals performed pseudo-random binary sequences work rate changes between 30W and 80W at PRE and POST training intervention. Heart rate (HR) and V˙Opulm were measured beat-to-beat and breath-by-breath, respectively.

Effects of blood flow restriction during moderate-intensity eccentric knee extensions.

We investigated if blood flow restriction (BFR, cuff pressure 20 mmHG below individual occlusion pressure) increases metabolic stress, hormonal response, release of muscle damage markers, and muscle swelling induced by moderate-intensity eccentric contractions. In a randomized, matched-pair design, 20 male subjects (25.3 ± 3.

Exercise during pregnancy and its impact on mothers and offspring in humans and mice.

Exercise during pregnancy has beneficial effects on maternal and offspring's health in humans and mice. The underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This comparative study aimed to determine the long-term effects of an exercise program on metabolism, weight gain, body composition and changes in hormones [insulin, leptin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)].

State-dependent alpha peak frequency shifts: Experimental evidence, potential mechanisms and functional implications.

Neural populations produce complex oscillatory patterns thought to implement brain function. The dominant rhythm in the healthy adult human brain is formed by alpha oscillations with a typical power peak most commonly found between 8 and 12Hz. This alpha peak frequency has been repeatedly discussed as a highly heritable and stable neurophysiological "trait" marker reflecting anatomical properties of the brain, and individuals' general cognitive capacity.