Brain and exercise: a first approach using electrotomography

PURPOSE: The impact of exercise on brain function has gained broad interest. Because hemodynamic and imaging studies are difficult to perform during and after exercise, electroencephalography (EEG) is often the method of choice. Within this study, we aimed 1) to extend prior work examining changes in scalp-recorded brain electrical activity associated with exercise and 2) to use a distributed source localization algorithm (standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography [sLORETA]) to model the probable neural sources of changes in EEG activity after exercise.

METHODS: Electrocortical activity of 22 recreational runners (21-45 yr) was recorded before and after exhaustive treadmill ergometry. Data were analyzed using sLORETA.

RESULTS: There was an increase in alpha-1 activity (7.5-10 Hz) immediately after exercise, which was localized to the left frontal gyrus (Brodmann area 8). This finding is consistent with alterations in emotional processing. Fifteen minutes after exercise, a decrease in alpha-2 (10-12.5 Hz), beta-1 (12.5-18 Hz), and gamma activities (35-48 Hz) was observed in Brodmann areas 18 and 20-22, which are well known to be involved in language processing.

CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that sLORETA is a robust method that allows brain activity maps to be generated from standardized EEG recordings following exercise.