Aerobic exercise promotes emotion regulation: a narrative review.

Aerobic exercise improves the three stages of emotion regulation: perception, valuation and action. It reduces the perception of negative emotions, encourages individuals to reinterpret emotional situations in a positive or non-emotional manner, and enhances control over emotion expression behaviours. These effects are generated via increased prefrontal cortex activation, the strengthening of functional connections between the amygdala and several other brain regions, and the enhancement of the plasticity of key emotion regulation pathways and nodes, such as the uncinate fasciculus. The effect of aerobic exercise on emotion regulation is influenced by the exercise intensity and duration, and by individuals' exercise experience. Future research may explore the key neural basis of aerobic exercise's promotion of emotion regulation.

fMRI evidence of movement familiarization effects on recognition memory in professional dancers.

Dual-process theories propose that recognition memory involves recollection and familiarity; however, the impact of motor expertise on memory recognition, especially the interplay between familiarity and recollection, is relatively unexplored. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study used videos of a dancer performing International Latin Dance Styles as stimuli to investigate memory recognition in professional dancers and matched controls. Participants observed and then reported whether they recognized dance actions, recording the level of confidence in their recollections, whereas blood-oxygen-level-dependent signals measured encoding and recognition processes. Professional dancers showed higher accuracy and hit rates for high-confidence judgments, whereas matched controls exhibited the opposite trend for low-confidence judgments. The right putamen and precentral gyrus showed group-based moderation effects, especially for high-confidence (vs. low-confidence) action recognition in professional dancers. During action recognition, the right superior temporal gyrus and insula showed increased activation for accurate recognition and high-confidence retrieval, particularly in matched controls. These findings highlighting enhanced action memory of professional dancers-evident in their heightened recognition confidence-not only supports the dual-processing model but also underscores the crucial role of expertise-driven familiarity in bolstering successful recollection. Additionally, they emphasize the involvement of the action observation network and frontal brain regions in facilitating detailed encoding linked to intention processing.

Ballroom dancers exhibit a dispositional need for arousal and elevated cerebral cortical activity during preferred melodic recall.

BACKGROUND: Although the association of human temperament and preference has been studied previously, few investigations have examined cerebral cortical activation to assess brain dynamics associated with the motivation to engage in performance. The present study adopted a personality and cognitive neuroscience approach to investigate if participation in ballroom dancing is associated with sensation-seeking temperament and elevated cerebral cortical arousal during freely chosen musical recall. METHODS: Preferred tempo, indicated by tapping speed during melodic recall, and a measure of fundamental disposition or temperament were assessed in 70 ballroom dancers and 71 nondancers. All participants completed a trait personality inventory (i.e., the Chen Huichang 60 Temperaments Inventory) to determine four primary types: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic. Participants separately recalled their favorite musical piece and tapped to it with their index finger for 40 beats using a computer keyboard. A subset of 59 participants (29 ballroom dancers and 30 nondancers) also repeated the same tapping task while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. RESULTS: The results revealed that the dancers were more extraverted, indicative of a heightened need for arousal, exhibited a preference for faster musical tempo, and exhibited elevated EEG beta power during the musical recall task relative to nondancers. Paradoxically, dancers also showed elevated introversion (i.e., melancholic score) relative to nondancers, which can be resolved by consideration of interactional personality theory if one assumes reasonably that dance performance environment is perceived in a stimulating manner. CONCLUSION: The results are generally consistent with arousal theory, and suggest that ballroom dancers seek elevated stimulation and, thereby, choose to engage with active and energetic rhythmic auditory stimulation, thus providing the nervous system with the requisite stimulation for desired arousal. These results also suggest an underlying predisposition for engagement in ballroom dance and support the gravitational hypothesis, which propose that personality traits and perception lead to the motivation to engage in specific forms of human performance.

Enhanced inhibitory control during re-engagement processing in badminton athletes: An event-related potential study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of present study was to investigate the impact of sport experience on response inhibition and response re-engagement in expert badminton athletes during the stop-signal task and change-signal task. METHODS: A total of 19 badminton athletes and 20 nonathletes performed both the stop-signal task and change-signal task. Reaction times (RTs) and event-related potentials were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: Behavioral results indicated that badminton athletes responded faster than nonathletes to go stimuli and to change signals, with faster change RTs and change-signal RTs, which take into consideration the variable stimulus onset time mean. During successful change trials in the change-signal task, the amplitudes of the event-related potential components N2 and P3 were smaller for badminton athletes than for nonathletes. Moreover, change-signal RTs and N2 amplitudes as well as change RTs and P3 amplitudes were significantly correlated in badminton athletes. A significant correlation was also found between the amplitude of the event-related potential component N1 and response accuracy to change signals in badminton athletes. CONCLUSION: Moderation of brain cortical activity in badminton athletes was more associated with their ability to rapidly inhibit a planned movement and re-engage with a new movement compared with nonathletes. The superior inhibitory control and more efficient neural mechanisms in badminton athletes compared with nonathletes might be a result of badminton athletes' professional training experience.

Effects of moderate- and high-intensity acute aerobic exercise on food reward and appetite in individuals with methamphetamine dependence.

PURPOSE: Drug addiction is characterised by overvaluation of drug-related rewards and undervaluation of "natural", non-drug-related rewards. Methamphetamine (MA) is the second largest illegally abused drug in the world. Studies have shown that acute aerobic exercise can reduce the incidence of MA-dependent individuals' craving for drug-related cues, but the impact of exercise on food reward in this population has yet to be established. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of moderate and high-intensity acute aerobic exercise on food reward and subjective feelings of appetite in MA-dependent populations. METHODS: Forty-four men, who met the DSM-V criteria for MA dependence, with BMI of 24.7 ±â€¯3.1 kg/m2 and age of 31.9 ±â€¯3.8 years, were randomly assigned to two exercise training groups: moderate- (n = 22; 65%~75% HRmax) or high- (n = 22; ≥ 85% HRmax) intensity. Each group performed a resting control or exercise session for 35 min, 1wk apart, in a counterbalanced order. Food reward (explicit liking, implicit wanting and relative preference) for high or low fat and sweet or savoury food images was assessed by the Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire and subjective feelings of appetite were measured by VAS. RESULTS: Greater relative preference (high: P = .018; moderate: P = .034) and implicit wanting (high: P = .018; moderate: P = .034) for high-fat savoury foods was noted following acute aerobic exercise compared to the control session. Exercise also increased subjective sensations of hunger (F (1,42) =8.28, P = .006). CONCLUSIONS: The current study provides the first evidence that acute aerobic exercise can increase reward for high fat savoury foods and stimulate appetite in MA-dependent individuals. In the context of exercise as a therapeutic option for MA dependence, these changes suggest an improvement in responsiveness to natural, non-drug rewards.

Does dance training influence beat sensorimotor synchronization? Differences in finger-tapping sensorimotor synchronization between competitive ballroom dancers and nondancers.

Sensorimotor synchronization is the coordination of rhythmic movement with an external beat. Dancers often synchronize each beat of their motion with an external rhythm. Compared with social dancing, competitive ballroom dancing requires a higher level of sensorimotor ability. Although previous studies have found that dance experience may facilitate sensorimotor synchronization, they did not examine this in competitive ballroom dancers. Thus, the present study compared sensorimotor synchronization in 41 nondancers and 41 skilled, competitive ballroom dancers as they performed a simple beat synchronization finger-tapping task. All participants finger-tapped freely at their preferred tempo before the formal experiments. Participants were then required to synchronize their finger-tapping with auditory, visual, or combined audiovisual signals in separate experiments and at varying tempos. To assess sensorimotor plasticity, the participants then repeated the free-tapping task after completing all three finger-tapping experiments. Compared with nondancers, dancers showed more accurate and stable beat synchronization. Dancers tapped before onset of all three types of sensorimotor stimulation, indicating a significant negative mean asynchrony and had a tendency to anticipate (predict) the stimuli. Dancers tended to auditory stimulation for beat sensorimotor synchronization, whereas nondancers tended to visual stimuli. Dancers had a faster tempo preference in the initial free-tapping task; however, the preferred tapping tempo increased in all participants in the second free-tapping task, suggesting that beat induction is affected by practice. Together these findings suggest that dance experience enhances sensorimotor synchronization and sensorimotor plasticity, with ballroom dancers tending to auditory stimulation for beat induction.

Attentional biases toward body images in males at high risk of muscle dysmorphia.

OBJECTIVE: Although research on muscle dysmorphia (MD), a body dysmorphic disorder subtype, has recently increased, the causes and mechanisms underlying this disorder remain unclear. Results from studies examining disorders associated with body image suggest the involvement of self-schema in biasing attention toward specific body information. The present study examined whether individuals at higher risk of MD also display attentional biases toward specific types of body images. METHODS: The validated Chinese version of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale was used to distinguish men at higher and lower risk of MD. Sixty-five adult Chinese men at higher (HRMD, n = 33) and lower risk of MD (LRMD, n = 32) performed a visual probe task. Initially, an image of a bodybuilder with either larger or smaller musculature was presented on one side of a central point, with a neutral image of a car exterior presented on the other side along the horizontal plane for 2,000 ms. The paired images were removed, and a visual target (a dot) was displayed in the location of one of the previously shown images. Participants were asked to indicate the location of the target, and their eye movements were recorded during the entire visual presentation. Participant reaction time and three eye movement measurements (gaze direction, first saccade latency, and first fixation duration) were recorded for use in determining attentional bias. RESULTS: The HRMD group revealed biases in orienting and maintaining their attention on images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures. Participants in this group consequently had a shorter reaction time in identifying the target that appeared at the location in which an image of a bodybuilder with a larger musculature had been previously displayed. They also directed their initial gaze more frequently, had shorter saccade latency, and had longer first fixation duration on images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures (all p < .0001). In comparison, the LRMD group had longer reaction times, slower attention orientation toward body images, and shorter fixation duration for images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures (all p < .0001), indicating weaker or mixed responses. DISCUSSION: Adult Chinese men at higher risk of MD displayed biases in orienting and maintaining their visual attention toward images of bodybuilders with larger musculatures, and these biases facilitated their information processing. These results suggest that development of MD may be due in part to attentional biases associated with established negative self-schema of specific body information. These findings provide insight into understanding and identifying the cognitive characteristics of MD in an Asian population.

The Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale: A factorial analysis of validity and reliability for its use on adult Chinese male weightlifters.

Muscle dysmorphia (MD) is the distorted perception of men's own muscle appearance. The increasing popularity of weightlifting in Chinese men suggests the presence of MD. The study assessed the validity and reliability of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale (MASS) for its use on adult Chinese males. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of responses from 225 and 592 participants confirmed the same five factors for the 17-item Chinese version as the original MASS (CFI=.931, RMSEA=.052). The internal consistency for all factors were acceptable (Cronbach's α=.636 to .737). Correlation levels of its subscales with converging measurements indicated that the revised MASS is effective in assessing MD in Chinese male weightlifters. Differences in the importance of the factors suggest an influence of Chinese culture in the symptoms of MD and the need of assessing the MASS with populations from distinct demographics in China and from different cultures.