Influences of Blood Lactate Levels on Cognitive Domains and Physical Health during a Sports Stress. Brief Review

Abstract

The present review aims to examine the effects of high blood lactate levels in healthy adult humans, for instance, after a period of exhaustive exercise, on the functioning of the cerebral cortex. In some of the examined studies, high blood lactate levels were obtained not only through exhaustive exercise but also with an intravenous infusion of lactate while the subject was immobile. This allowed us to exclude the possibility that the observed post-exercise effects were nonspecific (e.g., cortical changes in temperature, acidity, etc.). We observed that, in both experimental conditions, high levels of blood lactate are associated with a worsening of important cognitive domains such as attention or working memory or stress, without gender differences. Moreover, in both experimental conditions, high levels of blood lactate are associated with an improvement of the primary motor area (M1) excitability. Outside the frontal lobe, the use of visual evoked potentials and somatosensory evoked potentials allowed us to observe, in the occipital and parietal lobe respectively, that high levels of blood lactate are associated with an amplitude’s increase and a latency’s reduction of the early components of the evoked responses. In conclusion, significant increases of blood lactate levels could exercise a double-action in the central nervous system (CNS), with a protecting role on primary cortical areas (such as M1, primary visual area, or primary somatosensory cortex), while reducing the efficiency of adjacent regions, such as the supplementary motor area (SMA) or prefrontal cortex. These observations are compatible with the possibility that lactate works in the brain not only as an energy substrate or an angiogenetic factor but also as a true neuromodulator, which can protect from stress. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms and effects of lactic acid products produced during an anaerobic exercise lactate, focusing on their action at the level of the central nervous system with particular attention to the primary motor, the somatosensory evoked potentials, and the occipital and parietal lobe.

Applying a hierarchical clustering on principal components approach to identify different patterns of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic across Italian regions

“…However, while the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases was higher in Veneto on 24 February, it then increased more rapidly and with more intensity in Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont. Although the government measures were effective to slow down the epidemic in all the Italian regions 5 , 6 , the comparison between cluster 1 and 2 corroborates that the earlier the measures were taken, the lower the cumulative incidence achieved 8 . Indeed, Veneto imposed regional measures of travel restrictions earlier than Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont 3 .…”

“…Indeed, after modelling Italy as a network of regions, the authors concluded that intermittent regional strategies might avoid saturation of regional health systems and mitigate the economic impact 10 . In a recent work, we proposed that the classification of Italian regions into different clusters could have supported the development of specific strategies after the Italian national lockdown 14 . In part this happened after 6 November 2020, when a governmental decree classified Italian regions and autonomous provinces into three areas—red, orange, and yellow—which corresponded to three different risk scenarios.…”

“…Previous studies applied clustering analysis to classify SARS-CoV-2 patients according to their socio-demographic, clinical, and behavioural features 12 , 13 . We too have previously proposed a simple and immediate approach to categorize Italian regions and provinces based on the prevalence and trend of SARS-CoV-2 cases prior to relaxing national lockdown on 4 May 2020 14 .…”

Women with Fibromyalgia Prefer Resistance Exercise with Heavy Loads—A Randomized Crossover Pilot Study

“…Other studies show higher concentrations of lactate in women with FM, both at rest [ 47 ] and after exercise [ 48 ]. However, the role of lactate, as well as other variables related to intense physical activity, is still intriguing [ 49 ]. Exercise-induced pain [ 9 ], in addition to high lactate levels [ 19 ], might be a reason to why women with FM prefer exercises generating lower ratings of perceived exhaustion [ 24 , 46 ] even though the relationship between physical activity and central pain processing is less clear in patient populations [ 50 ].…”

Effects of General Fatigue Induced by Exhaustive Exercise on Posture and Gait Stability of Healthy Young Men

“…Several studies highlighted the negative effect of exhausting exercise on postural control in upright stance [7][8][9]. When an individual performed a maximal exercise, a fast decrease in muscle phosphocreatine has been observed, as well as an accumulation of metabolites like lactate [10,11], influencing the normal functioning of several brain structures [12,13], such as the primary motor cortex and the supplementary motor area [14,15] obviously involved in human walking [16][17][18]. As aforementioned, postural control describes the way our central nervous system regulates sensory information from other systems (visual, vestibular, and somatosensory) in order to produce adequate motor output to maintain a controlled balance.…”