Dataset Information

Physical Exercise Keeps the Brain Connected: Biking Increases White Matter Integrity in Patients With Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls.

ABSTRACT: It has been shown that learning a new skill leads to structural changes in the brain. However, it is unclear whether it is the acquisition or continuous practicing of the skill that causes this effect and whether brain connectivity of patients with schizophrenia can benefit from such practice. We examined the effect of 6 months exercise on a stationary bicycle on the brain in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Biking is an endemic skill in the Netherlands and thus offers an ideal situation to disentangle the effects of learning vs practice. The 33 participating patients with schizophrenia and 48 healthy individuals were assigned to either one of two conditions, ie, physical exercise or life-as-usual, balanced for diagnosis. Diffusion tensor imaging brain scans were made prior to and after intervention. We demonstrate that irrespective of diagnosis regular physical exercise of an overlearned skill, such as bicycling, significantly increases the integrity, especially of motor functioning related, white matter fiber tracts whereas life-as-usual leads to a decrease in fiber integrity. Our findings imply that exercise of an overlearned physical skill improves brain connectivity in patients and healthy individuals. This has important implications for understanding the effect of fitness programs on the brain in both healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia. Moreover, the outcome may even apply to the nonphysical realm.

SUBMITTER: Svatkova A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4466190 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Physical Exercise Keeps the Brain Connected: Biking Increases White Matter Integrity in Patients With Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls.

Svatkova Alena A Mandl René C W RC Scheewe Thomas W TW Cahn Wiepke W Kahn René S RS Hulshoff Pol Hilleke E HE

Schizophrenia bulletin 20150331 4

It has been shown that learning a new skill leads to structural changes in the brain. However, it is unclear whether it is the acquisition or continuous practicing of the skill that causes this effect and whether brain connectivity of patients with schizophrenia can benefit from such practice. We examined the effect of 6 months exercise on a stationary bicycle on the brain in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Biking is an endemic skill in the Netherlands and thus offers an ideal ...[more]

PMID: 25829377

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Project description:Background: Schizophrenia is characterized by the disruption of microstructural white matter (WM) integrity, while the pathogenesis remains unclear. Inflammation has been associated with the WM pathology in schizophrenia. Interleukin 10 (IL-10) has been proven to be related to schizophrenia in both animal and human models. The aim of this study was to explore whether peripheral IL-10 was associated with microstructural WM integrity in schizophrenia. Methods: A total of 47 patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and 49 healthy controls (HC) underwent diffusion tensor imaging and venous blood sampling. Tract-based spatial statistics was conducted to explore the differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (RD), mean diffusivity (MD), and axial diffusivity (AD) between patients and controls. A quantitative chemiluminescence assay was performed to measure peripheral IL-10 levels. General linear regression analysis using a stepwise method was applied to examine the relationship between peripheral IL-10 and diffusion measures. Results: Compared with the HC, peripheral IL-10 levels were higher and a significant reduction of FA and AD, and increase of RD and MD were observed in SZ (corrected p < 0.05). A regression analysis revealed that peripheral IL-10 was negatively correlated with FA in the right posterior thalamic radiation and left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, in SZ (β = -0.51, p = 0.01; β = -0.47, p = 0.02, respectively) but not in HC (β = -0.01, p = 0.95; β = -0.003, p = 0.98, respectively), and the differences in regression curves were significant (z = 2.50, p = 0.01; z = 2.37, p = 0.02, respectively). IL-10 was negatively connected with MD in the right parietal arcuate fasciculus (β = -0.40, p = 0.048) and body of the corpus callosum (β = -0.43, p = 0.03) in SZ, while not in HC. The magnitude of correlation in the patient and control group was different (z = 2.48, p = 0.01 and z = 2.61, p < 0.01, respectively). In addition, IL-10 was positively correlated with RD in the right parietal arcuate fasciculus in patients (β = 0.45, p = 0.04) but not in HC (β = 0.26, p = 0.94), but the correlation coefficients were not significant (z = 0.98, p = 0.32). Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that elevated peripheral IL-10 levels were associated with the disruption of microstructural WM integrity in schizophrenia, supporting the notion that inflammation plays a regulatory role in the pathology of microstructural WM and is associated with schizophrenia.

Dataset Information

Physical Exercise Keeps the Brain Connected: Biking Increases White Matter Integrity in Patients With Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls.

Publications

Physical Exercise Keeps the Brain Connected: Biking Increases White Matter Integrity in Patients With Schizophrenia and Healthy Controls.

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