Associations of physical activity and screen time with white matter microstructure in children from the general population
María Rodriguez-Ayllon,
Ivonne P.M. Derks,
Michiel A. van den Dries,
Irene Esteban-Cornejo,
Jeremy A. Labrecque,
Junwen Yang-Huang,
Hein Raat,
Meike W. Vernooij,
Tonya White,
Francisco B. Ortega,
Henning Tiemeier,
Ryan L. Muetzel
Affiliations
María Rodriguez-Ayllon
PROFITH “PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity” research group, Sport and Health University Research Institute (iMUDS), Department of Physical and Sports Education, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Ivonne P.M. Derks
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC –Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC – Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Michiel A. van den Dries
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC –Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC – Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Irene Esteban-Cornejo
PROFITH “PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity” research group, Sport and Health University Research Institute (iMUDS), Department of Physical and Sports Education, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
Jeremy A. Labrecque
Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Junwen Yang-Huang
Generation R Study Group, Erasmus MC – Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Hein Raat
Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Meike W. Vernooij
Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Tonya White
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC –Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Francisco B. Ortega
PROFITH “PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity” research group, Sport and Health University Research Institute (iMUDS), Department of Physical and Sports Education, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Henning Tiemeier
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC –Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States; Corresponding author. Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Ryan L. Muetzel
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC –Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Physical activity and sedentary behaviors have been linked to a variety of general health benefits and problems. However, few studies have examined how physical activity during childhood is related to brain development, with the majority of work to date focusing on cardio-metabolic health. This study examines the association between physical activity and screen time with white matter microstructure in the general pediatric population. In a sample of 2532 children (10.12 ± 0.58 years; 50.04% boys) from the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, we assessed physical activity and screen time using parent-reported questionnaires. Magnetic resonance imaging of white matter microstructure was conducted using diffusion tensor imaging. Total physical activity was positively associated with global fractional anisotropy (β = 0.057, 95% CI = 0.016, 0.098, p = 0.007) and negatively associated with global mean diffusivity (β = −0.079, 95% CI = −0.120, −0.038, p 0.05). This study provides new evidence that physical activity is modestly associated with white matter microstructure in children. In contrast, complementing other recent evidence on cognition, screen time was not associated with white matter microstructure. Causal inferences from these modest associations must be interpreted cautiously in the absence of longitudinal data. However, these data still offer a promising avenue for future work to explore to what extent physical activity may promote healthy white matter development.
