Cerebral blood flow: sleeping beauty awakened by exercise.

摘要

The most important task for the circulatory system is to maintain perfusion to the brain. Yet cerebral blood flow during exercise has been underemphasized and under-researched. Many exercise physiology textbooks do not discuss what happens to cerebral blood flow during exercise. A relative lack of research and attention in this area might be attributed to the prevalent notion that cerebral blood flow remains relatively constant under a variety of conditions, including exercise. From the standpoint of redistribution of blood flow to the contracting muscles and the presence of autoregulation in the brain, this notion seemed to be solid. However, as described in the article by Shigehiko Ogoh, Ph.D., and Philip Ainsle, Ph.D., in this issue of Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews (3), a majority of recent studies have demonstrated that cerebral blood flow does increase during exercise. This finding, as well as the technological evolutions in studying cerebral hemodynamics, has ignited interest in studying regulatory mechanisms of cerebral blood flow during exercise.