EDITORIAL article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Neurodegeneration
This article is part of the Research TopicExercise-Induced Neuroplasticity in Neurodegeneration Diseases Volume IIView all 5 articles
Editorial: Exercise-Induced Neuroplasticity in Neurodegeneration Diseases Volume II
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Key Laboratory of Sports Performance and Skill Assessment, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, China
- 2Department of Strength and Conditioning Assessment and Monitoring, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, China
- 3Xiamen University School of Public Health, Xiamen, China
- 4Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
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Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and related disorders, represent an escalating global health challenge. As life expectancy increases, the burden of chronic neurological conditions continues to rise (Imam et al., 2025). Despite extensive research efforts, the development of effective pharmacological disease-modifying therapies remains limited. As a result, growing attention has been directed toward non-pharmacological strategies aimed at preventing, delaying, or mitigating neurodegeneration. Among such strategies, exercise has emerged as one of the most promising interventions due to its capacity to modulate neuroplasticitythe brain's intrinsic ability to reorganize and adapt through changes in structure, function, and connectivity (Erickson et al., 2011;Northey et al., 2018).Exercise-induced neuroplasticity encompasses a broad spectrum of adaptive mechanisms, including synaptic remodeling, angiogenesis, mitochondrial biogenesis, and enhanced neurogenesis within brain regions critical for cognition and motor control (Liang et al., 2021;Lu et al., 2023;Zhang et al., 2024). These neurobiological adaptations contribute to improved neural efficiency, resilience, and repair, counteracting pathological processes such as oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and protein aggregation that characterize neurodegenerative disorders (Li et al., 2024;Lu et al., 2023;Sun et al., 2022). Recent evidence suggests that the beneficial effects of exercise extend beyond cellular and molecular levels to encompass network-level plasticity, facilitating improved communication among distributed brain regions (Dimitriadis et al., 2024;Rosso et al., 2025;Yu et al., 2024;Zhang et al., 2022). Such findings position exercise not only as a therapeutic tool for symptom management but also as a potential modifier of disease progression.
Keywords: Exercise, physical activity, neuroplasticity, Cognitive Function, neurodegenerationdiseases
Received: 15 Nov 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, He and Jan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laikang Yu
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