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Overview of mechanisms underlying the effects of exercise on cognitive function across ages BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor; EEG, electroencephalography; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; fNIRS, functional near-infrared spectroscopy; IGF, insulin growth factor; IL-6, interleukin 6; PET, positron emission tomography; TC Doppler, transcranial Doppler ultrasound; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor. Created with BioRender.com.
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... Given the complexity and difficulty of designing and conducting clinical trials in children, it is appealing to go down the path of conducting systematic reviews on this topic. However, with the size of the field and significant variation in participant characteristics, exercise dosage, and outcome measures among others, meta-analyses that take a "broad strokes" approach to their research questions and inclusion criteria are more likely to produce conflicting results and interpretations that do not reflect the specific context of the original studysee, for example, Ciria et al. 67 and the subsequent rebuttal by Dupuy et al. 68 In the context of the current topic, if sensitive periods are to be investigated through systematic reviews and meta-analyses, it is likely that the effects of exercise on brain and cognition will be dependent upon the outcome of interest and period of underlying development. While age is a likely proxy for underlying development, it must be remembered that this process is non-linear, and this will impact the inclusion criteria of reviews and the way in which age is treated as a nonlinear variable in meta-regression. ...
... In response to our recent umbrella review 1 , Dupuy et al. 2 argue that the evidence supporting a cognitive benefit of physical exercise is conclusive. Our review, however, provides compelling evidence of critical issues in this literature (that is, underpowered designs, salami slicing, regression towards the mean, placebo-like effects, selective reporting and publication bias) that preclude this conclusion. ...
