Exercise has been shown to have positive effects on the brain and behavior throughout various stages of the lifespan. However, little is known about the impact of exercise on neurodevelopment during the adolescent years, particularly with regard to white matter microstructure, as assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Both tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and tractography-based along-tract statistics were utilized to examine the relationship between white matter microstructure and aerobic exercise in adolescent males, ages 15–18. Furthermore, we examined the data by both (1) grouping individuals based on aerobic fitness self-reports (high fit (HF) vs. low fit (LF)), and (2) using VO₂ peak as a continuous variable across the entire sample. Results showed that HF youth had an overall higher number of streamline counts compared to LF peers, which was driven by group differences in corticospinal tract (CST) and anterior corpus callosum (Fminor). In addition, VO₂ peak was negatively related to FA in the left CST. Together, these results suggest that aerobic fitness relates to white matter connectivity and microstructure in tracts carrying frontal and motor fibers during adolescence. Furthermore, the current study highlights the importance of considering the environmental factor of aerobic exercise when examining adolescent brain development.

运动已被证明对整个生命周期的各个阶段的大脑和行为都有积极的影响。然而，关于运动对青少年时期神经发育的影响知之甚少，尤其是在白质微观结构方面，如弥散张量成像 (DTI) 所评估的那样。基于道的空间统计 (TBSS) 和基于道的沿道统计都被用来检查白质微观结构与 15-18 岁青少年男性有氧运动之间的关系。此外，我们通过 (1) 基于有氧健身自我报告（高适应度 (HF) 与低适应度 (LF)）和 (2) 使用 VO ₂对个体进行分组来检查数据峰值作为整个样本的连续变量。结果表明，与 LF 同龄人相比，HF 青年的流线计数总体上更高，这是由皮质脊髓束 (CST) 和前胼胝体 (Fminor) 的组差异驱动的。此外，VO ₂峰值与左侧 CST 中的 FA 呈负相关。总之，这些结果表明有氧健康与青春期携带额叶和运动纤维的束中的白质连接和微观结构有关。此外，当前的研究强调了在检查青少年大脑发育时考虑有氧运动环境因素的重要性。