Editorial: Understanding brain mechanisms underpinning physical movement and exercise

Abstract

It is well-accepted that physical activity and exercise, exert a strong positive influence over the central nervous system. As such, there is significant interest on understanding how specifically exercise influences neuroplasticity, and how the brain controls movement to perform daily activities. To truly understanding these mechanisms, neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging have revealed some insights on how the brain controls motor function and responses to exercise. However, these techniques may be limited in terms of their temporal resolution and ecological validity in measuring brain responses to movement and exercise. Now, recent advances of neuroimaging devices such as portable electroencephalography, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to study a broader range of dynamic movements and central changes associated with physical exercise. Portable neuroimaging methods can be applied concurrently with a motor task or exercise to understand its associated neural response, while the application of non-invasive brain stimulation can help to establish causality by experimentally-induced facilitation or inhibition of specific neural networks. Therefore, we hosted a special Research Topic issue for Frontiers in Neuroergonomics that focused on brain mechanisms underpinning physical movement and exercise. In total, 8 papers were accepted totalling 31 authors that covered three main domains: (1) Methods to elucidate fine motor control, (2) Exercise-related brain adaptations, and (3) Prospective considerations.