SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Movement Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1547022
This article is part of the Research TopicEfficacy, Neuromechanisms, and Human-AI Interface Integration: Neural-Adaptation Training Paradigms for Sports and RehabilitationView all 5 articles
Effects of complex whole-body movements on EEG activity: a scoping review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
- 2Department of Training and Movement Science, Institute of Sport Science, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany, Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
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To understand brain function, diverse approaches are pursued. The influence of movements on brain activity has been part of this research for decades. Recent advancements in electroencephalography (EEG) coupled with a shift in focus toward the effects of complex whole-body movements provided additional inspirations in this area. The investigation of the effects of endurance sports on brain activity poses the problem that an increase in EEG activity does not allow a differentiation between the effects caused by an increase in metabolism and those caused by an increase in the coordinative demands that must be coped with in parallel. This issue is currently being increasingly investigated using movements in which metabolism is not increased accordingly. This scoping review aims to summarize these studies that investigated the acute effects of complex whole-body movements with increased parallel information processing on electrical brain activity to identify trends and potential issues that can be considered for future research. A comprehensive search across five scientific databases resulted in thirteen studies that met the inclusion criteria. The included studies show considerable heterogeneity in terms of design and type of movement. Nevertheless, the findings revealed a trend toward increased theta and alpha activity in frontal, central and parietal areas during and after movement. In other frequency bands the findings were not consistent. These findings are discussed in the context of potential influencing factors. Based on a consistent EEG methodology, future research should increasingly investigate the complexity of movements with regard to a stronger differentiation of cognitive demands to identify these as a potential moderator variable.
Keywords: Electroencephalography, Exercise, physical activity, coordination, Neural effects
Received: 18 Dec 2024; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Müller, Salem and Schöllhorn. 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: Gabriel Müller, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
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