Physical fitness has been linked to cerebellar grey matter volume in adolescents since childhood. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland, those who were stronger, faster, and more agile as children had bigger Crus I grey matter volume in adolescence.
Despite the importance of the developing cerebellum in cognition and learning, the relationships between physical fitness and cerebellar volume in teenagers are unknown. This study looked at the relationships between physical fitness and grey matter volume in cerebellar lobules associated to cognition in teenagers, and whether these relationships differed between males and females.
Adolescents who have improved their neuromuscular fitness since childhood had more Crus I grey matter volume. Adolescents with superior cardiorespiratory fitness, on the other hand, had less total cerebellar grey matter volume. Furthermore, boys who had improved their neuromuscular fitness from childhood had less Crus II grey matter volume.
The study sheds light on the associations between physical fitness and the cerebellum. Future randomised controlled trials utilising direct cardiorespiratory fitness measurements and novel brain imaging to assess a larger population and both sexes separately are needed to better understand the associations and causality between physical fitness and cerebellar volumes in adolescents.
Petri Jalanko
“Our research emphasizes the importance of physical activity during childhood and adolescence, which leads to improved physical fitness, as it may be related to cerebellar volumes related to cognition and learning. However, the associations we discovered are partly contradictory,” says Doctoral Researcher Petri Jalanko of the University of Jyväskylä’s Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences.
“The study sheds light on the associations between physical fitness and the cerebellum. Future randomized controlled trials utilizing direct cardiorespiratory fitness measurements and novel brain imaging to assess a larger population and both sexes separately are needed to better understand the associations and causality between physical fitness and cerebellar volumes in adolescents,” Jalanko says.
The findings come from the FitBrain study, which included 40 participants from the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) study’s 8-year follow-up examinations. The participants were 22 females and 18 males, with a mean age of 17.9 years.
The maximal ramp test on a cycle ergometer was used to assess cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength with the standing long jump, speed-agility with the 10 x 5 m shuttle-run test, coordination with the Box and Block Test, and neuromuscular fitness as the sum of the standing long jump, Box and Block Test, and shuttle-run test z-scores. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine the volume of the cerebellum. The results of the research were published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.
