Abstract

The neurobiological effects of mind–body exercise on brain activation, functional neural connections and structural changes in the brain remain elusive. This systematic review and coordinate-based meta-analysis investigated the changes in resting-state and task-based brain activation, as well as structural brain changes before and after mind–body exercise compared to waitlist or active controls based on published structural or functional magnetic resonance imaging randomized controlled trials or cross-sectional studies. Electronic database search and manual search in relevant publications yielded 34 empirical studies with low-to-moderate risk of bias (assessed by Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials or Joanna Briggs Institute’s critical appraisal checklist for analytical cross-sectional studies) that fulfilled the inclusion criteria, with 26 studies included in the narrative synthesis and 8 studies included in the meta-analysis. Coordinate-based meta-analysis showed that, while mind–body exercise enhanced the activation of the left anterior cingulate cortex within the default mode network (DMN), it induced more deactivation in the left supramarginal gyrus within the ventral attention network (uncorrected ps < 0.05). Meta-regression with duration of mind–body practice as a factor showed that, the activation of right inferior parietal gyrus within the DMN showed a positive association with increasing years of practice (voxel-corrected p < 0.005). Although mind–body exercise is shown to selectively modulate brain functional networks supporting attentional control and self-awareness, the overall certainty of evidence is limited by small number of studies. Further investigations are needed to understand the effects of both short-term and long-term mind–body exercise on structural changes in the brain.

PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021248984.

Details

Title
The neurobiological effects of mind–body exercise: a systematic review and meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies
Author
Han, Yvonne M. Y. 1 ; Chan, Melody M. Y. 2 ; Choi, Coco X. T. 1 ; Law, Maxwell C. H. 1 ; Ahorsu, Daniel Kwasi 3 ; Tsang, Hector W. H. 1 

 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hong Kong SAR, China (GRID:grid.16890.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 1764 6123) 
 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hong Kong SAR, China (GRID:grid.16890.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 1764 6123); The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, St Lucia, Australia (GRID:grid.1003.2) (ISNI:0000 0000 9320 7537) 
 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hong Kong SAR, China (GRID:grid.16890.36) (ISNI:0000 0004 1764 6123); The Education University of Hong Kong, Department of Special Education and Counselling, Hong Kong SAR, China (GRID:grid.419993.f) (ISNI:0000 0004 1799 6254) 
Pages
10948
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2833810526
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.