Abstract
This paper aims to assess the effect of exercise intervention on the improvement of college students with depression and to explore the change characteristics of microstates and the power spectrum in their resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG). Forty female college students with moderate depression were screened according to the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Depression Self-Rating Scale (SDS) scores, and half of them received an exercise intervention for 18 weeks. The study utilized an EEG to define the resting-state networks, and the scores of all the participants were tracked during the intervention. Compared with those in the depression group, the power spectrum values in the θ and α bands were significantly decreased (p < 0.05), and the duration of microstate C increased significantly (p < 0.05), while the frequency of microstate B decreased significantly (p < 0.05) in the exercise intervention group. The transition probabilities showed that the exercise intervention group had a higher probability from B to D than those in the depression group (p < 0.01). In addition, the power of the δ and α bands were negatively correlated with the occurrence of microstate C (r = −0.842, p < 0.05 and r = −0.885, p < 0.01, respectively), and the power of the β band was positively correlated with the duration of microstate C (r = 0.900, p < 0.01) after exercise intervention. Our results suggest that the decreased duration of microstate C and the increased α power in depressed students are associated with reduced cognitive ability, emotional stability, and brain activity. Depression symptoms were notably improved after exercise intervention, thus providing a more scientific index for the research, rehabilitation mechanisms, and treatment of depression.
Highlights
Depression is a common chronic mental disorder with complicated causes and low rehabilitation rates [1]; its clinical symptoms include low mood, anxiety, insomnia, cognitive impairment, and even suicidal thoughts [2]
According to the scores of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and SDS scales completed by the students in the three groups at 3-week intervals, the results showed that the mean BDI-II and SDS scores of the depression control group (DC) and exercise intervention group (EI) groups were in the range of moderate depression before the exercise intervention experiment (20–29 and 63–73)
By week 18, the mean of both the BDI-II and SDS scores of the students in the EI group were in the range of mild depression
Summary
Depression is a common chronic mental disorder with complicated causes and low rehabilitation rates [1]; its clinical symptoms include low mood, anxiety, insomnia, cognitive impairment, and even suicidal thoughts [2]. The problem of depression has become increasingly serious and has a negative impact on an individual’s physical and mental health, damaging their careers and even their lives [3]. From the perspective of clinical psychology, depression is the result of a combination of factors, which are related to the patient’s age, personality, education level, physical illness, life pressure, family environment, lack of physical activity, and other factors [4,5]. The study of the pathogenesis of depression mainly involves neurobiological research.
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