Neural Changes of Exercise: a Functional MRI Study

Stress-related disorders have a profound impact on public health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) found major depressive disorder (MDD) to be one of the most important human health problems with a prevalence of about 10%. In the current proposal the aim is to investigate mechanisms of resilience against stress-related disorders and to examine changes in quality of life, health, brain structure and brain function in individuals performing a "resilience" programme. Therefore, the investigators will recruit forty healthy subjects from the hospital staff exposed to "normal" day-to-day stress and not participating already in a fitness programme. Half of the subjects will be randomised to a cognitive behavioural self-experience and exercise programme for 20 weeks carried out by experienced supervisors, coaches and trainers. Clinical psychological and psychiatric examinations will be carried out weekly and a range of sophisticated neuroimaging techniques - high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) and functional MRI (fMRI) - will be conducted before and after the "resilience" program in order to investigate its effectiveness on brain structure and function. The stress system will also be tested by examining cortisol awaking response (CAR) and daily rhythms of cortisol secretion. These techniques are all well established in our laboratories. The proposed research will likely stimulate the development of new prevention strategies for this common and important disorder, and in the future could be applied to other illnesses. Moreover, when successful it could be patented and offered for implementation in the daily routine of median to large companies.