Exercise, cognition, and the adolescent brain
Open accessAbstract
Background: Few adolescents engage in the recommended levels of physical activity, and daily exercise levels tend to drastically decrease throughout adolescence. Beyond physical health benefits, regular exercise may also have important implications for the teenage brain and cognitive and academic capabilities. Methods: This narrative review examines how physical activity and aerobic exercise relate to school performance, cognition, and brain structure and function. Results: A number of studies have found that habitual exercise and physical activity are associated with academic performance, cognitive function, brain structure, and brain activity in adolescents. We also discuss how additional intervention studies that examine a wide range of neurological and cognitive outcomes are necessary, as well as characterizing the type, frequency, and dose of exercise and identifying individual differences that contribute to how exercise may benefit the teen brain. Conclusions: Routine exercise relates to adolescent brain structure and function as well as cognitive performance. Together, these studies suggest that physical activity and aerobic exercise may be important factors for optimal adolescent brain development.
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The adolescent brain is sensitive to being influenced by the environment and by modifiable lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity.
“since the adolescent brain is sensitive to be influenced by environment and modifiable lifestyle behaviors such as PA [21,22].”
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- Authors
- Herting, M. M., & Chu, X.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Herting, Megan M.
- ORCID
- Herting, Megan M.
- Venue
- Birth Defects Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-12
- Volume
- 109
- Issue
- 20
- Pages
- 1672-1679
- ISSN
- 2472-1727 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5973814
- OpenAlex
- W2780154522
- Cited by
- 130
- References
- 79
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 0.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Birth Defects Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K01MH108761)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Children's Physical and Motor Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- adolescent physical activity, aerobic exercise, adolescent brain development, cognitive function, academic performance, brain structure, brain function
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Brain, Cognition, Humans, Exercise, Adolescent Development
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