Physiological mechanism of acute exercise benefits for human cognition: possible involvement of dopamine release and central command

Much research has accumulated on the beneficial effects of exercise on brain health. Although neuroimaging techniques are starting to uncover functional changes within the brain linked to acute exercise, the exact physiological mechanisms of how exercise stimulates the brain and boosts cognitive function remain unclear. Exercise can challenge the body's natural homeostatic state. To adapt to this, multiple integrated, and even redundant, physiological reactions are triggered in various systems and organs throughout the body, including the brain. This raises the question of which exercise-related neurobiological systems in the brain are involved in elevating cognitive performance and what the original trigger of this is. In a recent paper, Ando et al. (2024) aimed to investigate these questions from the perspective of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and electrical muscle stimulation. Here we build on those results by exploring the roles of dopamine, central command, and exercise pressor reflex.