Overview
- In Brain Research, UCL-led researchers report that fitness training increased the acute BDNF spike after a single 15-minute intense bout without raising resting levels.
- The magnitude of the post-exercise BDNF increase tracked with improvements in aerobic capacity measured by VO2max.
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy showed reduced prefrontal activation during attention and inhibition tasks after training, consistent with greater neural efficiency.
- The enhanced brain response emerged within roughly six weeks of the 12-week program.
- Authors and outside experts describe the findings as preliminary given the small sample, calling for larger and more diverse replication and mechanistic work.