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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDNeuroImage: Reports

Acute exercise for emotional pattern separation in youth with psychiatric symptoms and childhood adversity: a randomized controlled trial

  • Victor Mazereel
  • Lise Jennen1
  • Davy Vancampfort2
  • Zhiling Qiao3
  • Kristof Vansteelandt4
  • Patrick Dupont5
  • Aleksandra Lecei1
  • Ruud van Winkel6
6 affiliations
  1. 1KU Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Center for Clinical Psychiatry, ON5b Herestraat 49, bus 1029, Leuven, 3000, Belgium
  2. 2University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuvensesteenweg 517, Leuven-Kortenberg, 3070, Belgium; KU Leuven Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, ON4 Herestraat 49, bus 1510, Leuven, 3000, Belgium
  3. 3KU Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Center for Clinical Psychiatry, ON5b Herestraat 49, bus 1029, Leuven, 3000, Belgium; School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Ji'nan, China
  4. 4University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuvensesteenweg 517, Leuven-Kortenberg, 3070, Belgium
  5. 5KU Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Laboratory for Cognitive Neurology, ON5 Herestraat 49, bus 1020, Leuven, 3000, Belgium
  6. 6KU Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Center for Clinical Psychiatry, ON5b Herestraat 49, bus 1029, Leuven, 3000, Belgium; University Psychiatric Center KU Leuven, Leuvensesteenweg 517, Leuven-Kortenberg, 3070, Belgium
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Abstract

Adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods for the emergence of transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms. Pattern separation (PS) is the ability to discriminate between similar stimuli. Its behavioral proxy is mnemonic discrimination. PS is an important hippocampal function impaired in several mental disorders. Previous research demonstrated that while childhood adversity might lead to impaired PS, acute exercise could enhance it. Using a randomized controlled design, we examined the effect of acute moderate-intensity exercise on PS versus a rest condition in a group of young people. Building on our prior report in a healthy youth sample (Jennen et al., 2025), the present study examines adolescents and young adults with transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms and childhood adversity, compared to healthy controls. We integrated behavioral and neural PS with an emotional mnemonic discrimination task and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our analyses did not reveal significant effects of exercise or psychiatric symptoms on mnemonic discrimination and PS. Additionally, PS was not associated with symptom dimensions or childhood adversity. Across groups, we observed decreased discrimination for positive images and increased neural activation in the left centromedial amygdala for emotional images. No correlation between neural activity and mnemonic discrimination could be observed and exploratory analyses revealed no neural activity consistent with PS. We conclude that in our study neither mnemonic discrimination nor PS was associated with psychiatric symptoms or childhood adversity in adolescents and young adults with transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms. In addition, acute exercise had no effect. Future research should prioritize establishing robust and reliable associations of both acute exercise and psychiatric symptoms with mnemonic discrimination and neural PS.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{mazereel2026acute,
  title = {{Acute exercise for emotional pattern separation in youth with psychiatric symptoms and childhood adversity: a randomized controlled trial}},
  author = {Victor Mazereel and Lise Jennen and Davy Vancampfort and Zhiling Qiao and Kristof Vansteelandt and Patrick Dupont and Aleksandra Lecei and Ruud van Winkel},
  journal = {NeuroImage: Reports},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1016/j.ynirp.2026.100419},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynirp.2026.100419},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Acute exercise for emotional pattern separation in youth with psychiatric symptoms and childhood adversity: a randomized controlled trial
AU  - Victor Mazereel
AU  - Lise Jennen
AU  - Davy Vancampfort
AU  - Zhiling Qiao
AU  - Kristof Vansteelandt
AU  - Patrick Dupont
AU  - Aleksandra Lecei
AU  - Ruud van Winkel
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/22
JO  - NeuroImage: Reports
DO  - 10.1016/j.ynirp.2026.100419
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynirp.2026.100419
AB  - Adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods for the emergence of transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms. Pattern separation (PS) is the ability to discriminate between similar stimuli. Its behavioral proxy is mnemonic discrimination. PS is an important hippocampal function impaired in several mental disorders. Previous research demonstrated that while childhood adversity might lead to impaired PS, acute exercise could enhance it. Using a randomized controlled design, we examined the effect of acute moderate-intensity exercise on PS versus a rest condition in a group of young people. Building on our prior report in a healthy youth sample (Jennen et al., 2025), the present study examines adolescents and young adults with transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms and childhood adversity, compared to healthy controls. We integrated behavioral and neural PS with an emotional mnemonic discrimination task and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our analyses did not reveal significant effects of exercise or psychiatric symptoms on mnemonic discrimination and PS. Additionally, PS was not associated with symptom dimensions or childhood adversity. Across groups, we observed decreased discrimination for positive images and increased neural activation in the left centromedial amygdala for emotional images. No correlation between neural activity and mnemonic discrimination could be observed and exploratory analyses revealed no neural activity consistent with PS. We conclude that in our study neither mnemonic discrimination nor PS was associated with psychiatric symptoms or childhood adversity in adolescents and young adults with transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms. In addition, acute exercise had no effect. Future research should prioritize establishing robust and reliable associations of both acute exercise and psychiatric symptoms with mnemonic discrimination and neural PS.
SN  - 2666-9560
ER  -