The Effects Of An Acute Bout Of Exercise On Aperiodic-adjusted Alpha Peak Frequency

Alpha peak frequency (APF) has been shown to decrease after an acute bout of exercise. However, previous studies have yet to investigate changes in cognitively relevant regions of interest (ROIs) and account for the aperiodic component of the neural signal. Therefore, we aimed to use eyes-closed resting-state electroencephalography (rs-EEG) to examine within-subject differences in parameterized whole-brain and frontoparietal APF after an acute bout of exercise in a cohort of healthy young adults. Establishing these differences may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying changes in brain function resulting from exercise. PURPOSE: Parameterizing neural activity to examine the within-subject differences in APF after an acute bout of exercise compared to rest in healthy young adults. METHODS: 30 young adults (19.63 ± 1.406 years) completed two study visits in a randomized cross-over design. Study visits consisted of pre-intervention rs-EEG collection, 20 min of steady-state treadmill exercise intervention or a seated rest control, and post-intervention rs-EEG collection. The FOOOF algorithm was used to parameterize the collected neural signal to have rs-EEG metrics accounting for the aperiodic component. Analyses were conducted using a 2x2 linear mixed effects model with a time*condition interaction accounting for sex, age, years of education, and baseline VO2max. RESULTS: No significant effects of time*condition were seen for unadjusted APF on whole brain (β = -0.066, p = 0.720), or within frontoparietal electrodes (β = -0.10, p = 0.597). Also, no significant effects of time*conditionwere observed for aperiodic-adjusted APF on whole brain (β = -0.030, p = 0.755) and within frontoparietal electrodes (β = 0.094, p = 0.227). CONCLUSION: Preliminary findings reveal a lack of a significant differential relationship between APF and the intervention conditions. This suggests that an acute bout of exercise does not have a distinctive influence on APF, unadjusted and adjusting for the aperiodic component, in healthy young adults in comparison to seated rest. As such, APF may not be a plausible mechanism of acute exercise effects on brain function in healthy adults, but future research should continue to explore APF in exercise interventions with clinical populations who exhibit slowing of APF.