ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Digital Mental Health
Beyond the Cognitive Haze: BrainRot, Cognitive Flexibility, Physical Exercise, and Anxiety Symptoms Among Chinese Adolescents
- YC
Yuhan Chen 1
- ZL
Zhiru Liang 2
- JW
Jing Wang 2
- ZZ
Zhijia Zhang 2
- CX
Chenyang Xu 3
- ZG
Zhen Guo 1
- YL
Yang Liu 1
- CY
Chuqi Yan 1
1. Jishou University, Jishou, China
2. Xilingol League Central Hospital, Xilinhot, China
3. Nantong University, Nantong, China
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Abstract
The present study examined BrainRot, cognitive flexibility, anxiety symptoms, and physical exercise in Chinese adolescents. A cross-sectional design was employed, with data collected from 3,261 adolescents through questionnaires assessing problematic short-video use, cognitive flexibility, anxiety symptoms, and physical exercise. BrainRot was positively related to anxiety symptoms (r = 0.329) and negatively related to cognitive flexibility (r = −0.286) and physical exercise (r = −0.105). Anxiety symptoms were also negatively related to cognitive flexibility (r = −0.357) and physical exercise (r = −0.114), whereas physical exercise was positively related to cognitive flexibility (r = 0.123). Mediation analysis suggested that cognitive flexibility may statistically mediate the link between BrainRot and anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, physical exercise moderated the path from BrainRot to cognitive flexibility and the direct path from BrainRot to anxiety symptoms, showing pathway-specific patterns. Conditional indirect effects through cognitive flexibility were observed at low, mean, and high levels of physical exercise, suggesting that physical exercise may play a pathway-specific role in shaping the associations among BrainRot, cognitive flexibility, and anxiety symptoms. These findings deepen our understanding of the pathway-specific role of physical exercise in the associations among BrainRot, cognitive flexibility, and anxiety symptoms, and may inform future strategies for adolescent mental health promotion.
Summary
Keywords
adolescents, Anxiety symptoms, BrainRot, cognitive flexibility, physical exercise
Received
19 March 2026
Accepted
29 June 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Chen, Liang, Wang, Zhang, Xu, Guo, Liu and Yan. 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: Yang Liu
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