The impact of exercise in improving executive function impairments among children and adolescents with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: he goal of this work was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating and comparing exercise related improvements in various executive function (EF) domains among children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Methods: A systematic literature research was conducted in PubMed, CENTRAL, and PsycInfo from October 1st, 2018 through January 30th, 2019 for original peer-reviewed articles investigating the relationship between exercise interventions and improvements in three domains of executive function (working memory, attention/set shifting, and response inhibition) among children and adolescents with ADHD, ASD, and FASD. Effect sizes (ES) were extracted and combined with random-effects meta-analytic methods. Covariates and moderators were then analyzed using meta-regression and subgroup analyses. Results: A total of 28 studies met inclusion criteria, containing information on 1,281 youth (N=1197 ADHD, N= 54 ASD, N=30 FASD). For ADHD, exercise interventions were associated with moderate improvements in attention/set-shifting (ES 0.38, 95% CI 0.01-0.75, k=14) and approached significance for working memory (ES 0.35, 95%CI -0.17-0.88, k=5) and response inhibition (ES 0.39, 95%CI -0.02-0.80, k=12). For ASD and FASD, exercise interventions were associated with large improvements in working memory (ES 1.36, 95%CI 1.08-1.64) and response inhibition (ES 0.78, 95%CI 0.21-1.35) and approached significance for attention/set-shifting (ES 0.69, 95% -0.28-1.66). There was evidence of substantial methodologic and substantive heterogeneity among studies. Sample size, mean age, study design, and the number or duration of intervention sessions did not significantly moderate the relationship between exercise and executive function. Conclusion: Exercise interventions among children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders were associated with moderate improvements in executive function domains. Of note, studies of youth with ASD and FASD tended to report higher effect sizes compared to studies of youth with ADHD, albeit few existing studies. Exercise may be a potentially cost-effective and readily implementable intervention to improve executive function in these populations

A genomic catalog of Earth’s microbiomes

The reconstruction of bacterial and archaeal genomes from shotgun metagenomes has enabled insights into the ecology and evolution of environmental and host-associated microbiomes. Here we applied this approach to >10,000 metagenomes collected from diverse habitats covering all of Earth’s continents and oceans, including metagenomes from human and animal hosts, engineered environments, and natural and agricultural soils, to capture extant microbial, metabolic and functional potential. This comprehensive catalog includes 52,515 metagenome-assembled genomes representing 12,556 novel candidate species-level operational taxonomic units spanning 135 phyla. The catalog expands the known phylogenetic diversity of bacteria and archaea by 44% and is broadly available for streamlined comparative analyses, interactive exploration, metabolic modeling and bulk download. We demonstrate the utility of this collection for understanding secondary-metabolite biosynthetic potential and for resolving thousands of new host linkages to uncultivated viruses. This resource underscores the value of genome-centric approaches for revealing genomic properties of uncultivated microorganisms that affect ecosystem processes.</p