Twelve weeks of physical exercise breaks with coordinative exercises at the workplace increase the sulcal depth and decrease gray matter volume in brain structures related to visuomotor processes

Abstract

Physical exercise can evoke changes in the brain structure. Consequently, these can lead to positive impacts on brain health. However, physical exercise studies including coordinative exercises are rare. Therefore, in this study, we investigated how 12 weeks of physical exercise breaks (PEBs) with coordinative exercises, focusing mainly on juggling tasks, affected the brain structure. The participants were randomly allocated to an intervention group (IG, n = 16; 42.8 ± 10.2 years) and a control group (CG, n = 9; 44.2 ± 12.3 years). The IG performed the PEBs with coordinative exercises twice per week for 15-20 min per session. Before the intervention, after 6 weeks of the intervention, and after 12 weeks of the intervention, participants underwent a high-resolution 3T T1-weighted magnetic resonance imagining scan. Juggling performance was assessed by measuring the time taken to perform a three-ball cascade. A surface-based analysis revealed an increase in vertex-wise cortical depth in a cluster including the inferior parietal lobe after 6 and 12 weeks of training in the IG. After 12 weeks, the IG showed a decrease in gray matter (GM) volume in a cluster primarily involving the right insula and the right operculum. The changes in the GM volume were related to improvements in juggling performance. No significant changes were found for the CG. To conclude, the present study showed that regular engagement in PEBs with coordinative exercises led to changes in brain structures strongly implicated in visuomotor processes involving hand and arm movements.

Keywords: Adult; Balance; Brain volume; Cortical thickness; Juggling.

Fig. 1

Flow diagram of participants

Fig. 2

A Decrease in GM volume in the right Rolandic operculum/right insula after the intervention (week 12). B Increase in vertex-wise cortical depth in the right inferior parietal/supramarginal regions from week 0 to week 6 (left column) and from week 0 to week 12 (right column)

Fig. 3

Mean and standard deviation of the three-ball cascade absolute time before (week 0), during (week 6), and after (week 12) the intervention for the IG (n = 16) and CG (n = 8; one participant was excluded due to their very high juggling skills at week 0). *Significant difference to week 0 for the IG, ^#significant difference to week 6 for the IG; °significant difference between the IG and CG