Physical exercise and cortical thickness in healthy controls: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: Physical exercise has showed potential in improving brain function and increase in cortical size. This study aims to assess the cortical changes that are associated with physical exercise. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We investigated 45 subjects; 25 of them involved in exercise group and 20 in non-exercise group. The exercise group underwent 6 months of intervention consisting of 40 minutes (min) of aerobic exercise and 20 minutes of anaerobic exercise. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were acquired from both groups to measure the thickness of the cortex and was assessed with FreeSurfer software. RESULTS: Exercise group demonstrated significantly increased cortical thickness in the left pericalcarine area, left superior parietal area, right rostral middle frontal and right lateral occipital gyrus compared to non-exercise group. CONCLUSIONS: Regular and continuous physical exercise can enhance brain structures. The current findings have important implications for understanding the effect of physical activity or fitness programs on the brains of healthy individuals and of patients with a range of conditions.

Altered default mode network activity and cortical thickness as vulnerability indicators for SCZ: a preliminary resting state MRI study.

OBJECTIVE: Alterations in brain function in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) and other neuropsychiatric disorders are evident not only during specific cognitive challenges, but also from functional MRI data obtained during a resting state. Patients with chronic SCZ have shown deficits in default mood network (DMN) and gray matter volume in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). However, cortical thickness and surface area in first-episode schizophrenic patients have rarely been investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the present study, we applied independent component analysis (ICA) to a series of rs-fMRIs of 15 SCZ patients and 15 matched healthy controls. The data were analyzed using MELODIC of FMRIB's Software Library (FSL version 5.9; www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl) to identify large-scale patterns of temporal signal-intensity coherence. RESULTS: Patients with SCZ showed significantly higher functional connectivity in the DMN, auditory network, and cerebellum network (p=0.049, p=0.05, and p=0.007, respectively) than matched healthy controls. The patients also exhibited significantly less cortical thickness, primarily in the bilateral prefrontal and parietal cortex, and higher thickness in the bilateral anterior temporal lobes, left medial orbitofrontal cortex, and left cuneus than the matched healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that significantly abnormal DMN connectivity and cortical thickness contribute to local functional pathology in patients with SCZ.