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The effect of aerobic exercise on cortical architecture in patients with chronic schizophrenia: a randomized controlled MRI study

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European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Via influencing brain plasticity, aerobic exercise could contribute to the treatment of schizophrenia patients. As previously shown, physical exercise increases hippocampus volume and improves short-term memory. We now investigated gray matter density and brain surface expansion in this sample using MRI-based cortical pattern matching methods. Comparing schizophrenia patients to healthy controls before and after 3 months of aerobic exercise training (cycling) plus patients playing table football yielded gray matter density increases in the right frontal and occipital cortex merely in healthy controls. However, respective exercise effects might be attenuated in chronic schizophrenia, which should be verified in a larger sample.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Nußbaumstr 7, 80336, Munich, Germany

    Peter Falkai, Berend Malchow, Andrea Schmitt & Frank-Gerald Pajonk

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen, von-Siebold-Str. 5, Göttingen, Germany

    Berend Malchow, Thomas Wobrock & Oliver Gruber

  3. Center of Mental Health, County Hospitals Darmstadt-Dieburg, Groß-Umstadt, Germany

    Thomas Wobrock

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    William G. Honer

  5. Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Frank Sun & Tyrone D. Cannon

Authors
  1. Peter Falkai
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  2. Berend Malchow
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  3. Thomas Wobrock
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  4. Oliver Gruber
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  5. Andrea Schmitt
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  6. William G. Honer
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  7. Frank-Gerald Pajonk
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  8. Frank Sun
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  9. Tyrone D. Cannon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Schmitt.

Additional information

Peter Falkai and Berend Malchow contributed equally.

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Falkai, P., Malchow, B., Wobrock, T. et al. The effect of aerobic exercise on cortical architecture in patients with chronic schizophrenia: a randomized controlled MRI study. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 263, 469–473 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-012-0383-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-012-0383-y

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