Physical Activity, Exercise, Sports, and Affective and Cognitive Wellbeing

Dear Colleagues,

A growing body of research suggests that physical activity, exercise, and sports affect a wide range of cognitive and affective wellbeing, including attention, executive functions, short and long-term memory, divergent thinking, academic performance, resilience, and mental health. As a result, regular physical activity has been recommended as a strategy to enhance brain health and a therapy for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders such as dementia, major depression, and anxiety disorders. However, despite these fruitful findings and common recommendations, there are still many unknowns to prescribe physical exercise effectively and efficiently. For instance, it is still unclear what kind of physical activity, exercise, and sports conducted with how long a duration achieves maximal benefits to obtain a target treatment outcome in a specific population. Furthermore, what kind of moderators and mediators exist in the affective and cognitive effects of physical activity, exercise, and sports, which may help to dissect the heterogeneity of the responses, remains largely uninvestigated. In addition, the development of effective strategies to enhance the motivation for and cultivate the habits of physical activity, exercise, and sports is another area of research critical for exercise prescriptions.

The goal of this Special Issue is to address these unsolved issues, advance our understanding of the affective and cognitive benefits of physical activity, exercise, and sports, and explore factors that potentially influence the motivation for physical activity, exercise, and sports. Any topics relevant to the association between physical activity, exercise, sports (either acute or chronic), and cognitive functions, affective wellbeing, and mental health are welcome. The subjects can be healthy human volunteers or clinical patients of different ages and backgrounds. Article types include, but are not limited to, original research, short communications, clinical trials, reviews, meta-analyses, and case-reports. For original research and short communications, the design can be cross-sectional, longitudinal, or interventional.

Dr. Chong Chen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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