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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living

Sec. Exercise Physiology

Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1529288

Changes in cortical brain activity after active break in preschoolers: MOVI-HIIT study

Provisionally accepted
María Valdivieso-GonzálezMaría Valdivieso-González1,2*Francisco Javier Sancho-BielsaFrancisco Javier Sancho-Bielsa3*Beatriz Garcia-MartinezBeatriz Garcia-Martinez4Arturo Martinez-RodrigoArturo Martinez-Rodrigo4Oscar NavarroOscar Navarro1,2Andrés Redondo-TebarAndrés Redondo-Tebar2,5Mairena Sánchez LópezMairena Sánchez López1,2
  • 1Faculty of Education, University of Castilla La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain
  • 2Center for Socio-Health Studies (CESS), University of Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca, Spain
  • 3Faculty of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain, Ciudad Real, Spain
  • 4Polytechnic School of Cuenca, University of Castilla La Mancha, Cuenca, Spain
  • 5Faculty of Nursing, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain

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This study investigates the acute effects of high-intensity interval exercise on brain activity in preschool children, focusing on changes in EEG frequency bands before, immediately after, and 20 minutes post-exercise. Eleven children (5-6 years) participated, but EEG recordings were included only if all channels maintained a quality score >3 (0-4 scale updated every 0.5 s), resulting in the exclusion of two participants due to insufficient high-quality data. EEG data revealing significant increases in Theta, Alpha1, and Alpha2 bands, suggesting enhanced relaxation, attentiveness, and readiness to learn. Conversely, Beta and Gamma bands showed reductions, especially in frontal, temporal, and parietal regions, indicating decreased stress and mental effort. These effects persisted for up to 20 min after exercise, suggesting that brief, high-intensity exercise induces EEG changes associated with states of attentional readiness and emotional regulation, which may support learning, pending further validation.

Keywords: EEG1, physical activity2, Children3, Acute effect4, Brain waves5. (Min

Received: 16 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Valdivieso-González, Sancho-Bielsa, Garcia-Martinez, Martinez-Rodrigo, Navarro, Redondo-Tebar and Sánchez López. 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:
María Valdivieso-González, Faculty of Education, University of Castilla La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain
Francisco Javier Sancho-Bielsa, Faculty of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain, Ciudad Real, Spain

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material