OSCR

Exercise enhances hippocampal-cortical ripple interactions in the human brain.

Overview

Authors: Araceli R Cardenas1, Juan F Ramirez-Villegas2,3, Christopher K Kovach4, Phillip E Gander5, Rachel C Cole6, Andrew J Grossbach7, Hiroto Kawasaki4, Jeremy D W Greenlee4, Matthew A Howard4, Kirill V Nourski4,8, Matthew I Banks9,10, Michelle W Voss8,11,12
ORCID iDs: Araceli R Cardenas, Juan F Ramirez-Villegas, Rachel C Cole, Jeremy D W Greenlee, Kirill V Nourski, Matthew I Banks
  1. Neuromatch, NeuroAI Academy, Beaverton, OR 97008, USA
  2. Cellular and Systems Neurobiology Department, Neuroscience Institute Alicante, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Universidad Miguel Hernandez (UMH), San Juan de Alicante 03550, Spain
  3. Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Klosterneuburg 3400, Austria
  4. Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
  5. Department of Radiology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
  6. Department of Neurology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
  7. Department of Neurosurgery, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
  8. Iowa Neuroscience Institute, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
  9. Department of Anesthesiology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705, USA
  10. Department of Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705, USA
  11. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
  12. Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
Institutions: Neuromatch; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain); Institute of Science and Technology Austria (Austria); Instituto de Neurociencias (Spain); University of Iowa (United States); The Ohio State University (United States); University of Wisconsin–Madison (United States)
Journal: Brain communications, volume 8, issue 2, article fcag041
Dates: received 29 May 2025; accepted 10 February 2026; published online 9 March 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1093/braincomms/fcag041 · PMID 42022290 · PMCID PMC13098182 · OpenAlex W7134239809
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code on request
Categories: intracranial EEG (iEEG / ECoG / SEEG) (modality), human (organism), systems (subfield)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Statistics, Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Connectivity, Machine learning, Preprocessing, fMRI & imaging
Keywords: exercise, hippocampus, intracranial electrophysiology, sharp wave ripples, resting state
Topic: Functional Brain Connectivity Studies (Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroscience), according to OpenAlex
Citations: cited by 1 paper (Europe PMC); 67 references in the paper

Abstract

Physical exercise acutely improves hippocampus-dependent memory. Whereas animal studies have offered cellular- and synaptic-level accounts of these effects, human neuroimaging studies show that exercise improves hippocampal-cortical connectivity at the macroscale level. However, the neurophysiological basis of exercise-induced effects on hippocampal-cortical circuits remains unknown. Experimental evidence supports the idea that hippocampal sharp wave-ripples (SWR) play a critical role in learning and memory. Coupling between SWRs in the hippocampus and neocortex may reflect modulations in inter-regional connectivity required by mnemonic processes. Here, we examine the hypothesis that exercise modulates hippocampal-cortical ripple dynamics in the human brain. We performed intracranial recordings in epilepsy patients undergoing pre-surgical evaluation, during awake resting state, before and after an exercise session. Exercise increased ripple rate in the hippocampus. Exercise also enhanced the coupling and phase-synchrony between cortical ripples in the limbic and the default mode (DM) cortical networks and hippocampal SWRs. Further, a higher heart rate during exercise, reflecting exercise intensity, was related to a subsequent increase in resting state ripples across specific cortical networks, including the DM network. These results offer the first direct evidence that a single exercise session elicits changes in ripple events, a well-established neurophysiological marker of mnemonic processing. The characterisation and anatomical distribution of the described modulation points to hippocampal ripples as a potential mechanism by which exercise elicits its reported short-term effects in cognition.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

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Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability

The data and code supporting the findings of this article will be available upon request to the lead contact, Prof. Dr Michelle Voss ().

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 12 authors, 5 keywords, 63 references.

Cite

This paper

Cardenas, A. R., Ramirez-Villegas, J. F., Kovach, C. K., Gander, P. E., Cole, R. C., Grossbach, A. J., Kawasaki, H., Greenlee, J. D. W., Howard, M. A., Nourski, K. V., Banks, M. I., & Voss, M. W. (2026). Exercise enhances hippocampal-cortical ripple interactions in the human brain. Brain communications, 8(2), fcag041. https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcag041

BibTeX

@article{cardenas2026exercise,
author = {Cardenas, Araceli R and Ramirez-Villegas, Juan F and Kovach, Christopher K and Gander, Phillip E and Cole, Rachel C and Grossbach, Andrew J and Kawasaki, Hiroto and Greenlee, Jeremy D W and Howard, Matthew A and Nourski, Kirill V and Banks, Matthew I and Voss, Michelle W},
title = {{Exercise enhances hippocampal-cortical ripple interactions in the human brain}},
journal = {Brain communications},
year = {2026},
month = mar,
volume = {8},
number = {2},
pages = {fcag041},
publisher = {Oxford University Press},
issn = {2632-1297},
doi = {10.1093/braincomms/fcag041},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcag041},
pmid = {42022290},
pmcid = {PMC13098182}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Cardenas, Araceli R
AU - Ramirez-Villegas, Juan F
AU - Kovach, Christopher K
AU - Gander, Phillip E
AU - Cole, Rachel C
AU - Grossbach, Andrew J
AU - Kawasaki, Hiroto
AU - Greenlee, Jeremy D W
AU - Howard, Matthew A
AU - Nourski, Kirill V
AU - Banks, Matthew I
AU - Voss, Michelle W
TI - Exercise enhances hippocampal-cortical ripple interactions in the human brain
T2 - Brain communications
J2 - Brain Commun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/03/09
VL - 8
IS - 2
SP - fcag041
SN - 2632-1297
PB - Oxford University Press
DO - 10.1093/braincomms/fcag041
UR - https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcag041
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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