Exercise Promotes Neuroplasticity in Both Healthy and Depressed Brains: An fMRI Pilot Study

Table 2

Results of pre-post changes for depression scores, cognitive assessment, memory performance, body mass index, and fitness.

Measure	MDD					Healthy					Between-group analysis
	n	Premean (SD)	Postmean (SD)	p	d	n	Premean (SD)	Postmean (SD)	p	d	F	p	dppc2
BDI	8	41.75 (3.50)	15.50 (10.43)	0.0004	2.89	8	5.88 (5.03)	3.25 (4.53)	0.072	0.545	30.42	<0.0001	5.34
MOCA	8	24.63 (1.41)	25.75 (2.38)	0.229	0.564	8	26.13 (3.23)	27.13 (1.81)	0.286	0.338	0.011	0.920	0.047
Memory task (high confidence (correct) %)	8	71.48 (9.50)	69.08 (12.03)	0.359	0.210	8	75.32 (9.29)	75.13 (9.07)	0.942	0.020	0.418	0.529	0.230
BMI (kg/m^2)	8	28.33 (5.12)	28.29 (4.48)	0.934	0.007	8	28.29 (7.91)	27.95 (6.61)	0.530	0.023	0.205	0.657	0.044
VO2max (ml.kg^−1.min^−1)	7	24.82 (8.00)	32.52 (10.12)	0.073	0.834	8	20.81 (6.48)	30.57 (8.66)	0.014	1.26	7.96	0.661	0.279

Data are expressed as mean with SD in parentheses. BDI: Beck Depression Inventory; MoCA: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; BMI: body mass index; VO₂max: maximum oxygen consumption; d: Cohen’s d.