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

Marinella Coco, Andrea Buscemi, Tiziana Ramaci, Matej Tusak, Donatella Di Corrado, Vincenzo Perciavalle, Grazia Maugeri, Valentina Perciavalle and Giuseppe Musumeci
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Marinella Coco: Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Andrea Buscemi: Horus Social Cooperative, 97100 Ragusa, Italy
Tiziana Ramaci: Department of Human and Social Sciences, Kore University, 94100 Enna, Italy
Matej Tusak: Head of Department of Social and Humanistic Science in Sport Head of the Laboratory for Sport Psychodiagnostics, University of Liubljana, 1000 Liubljana, Slovenia
Donatella Di Corrado: Department of Human and Social Sciences, School of Sport Sciences, Kore University, 94100 Enna, Italy
Vincenzo Perciavalle: Department of Human and Social Sciences, School of Sport Sciences, Kore University, 94100 Enna, Italy
Grazia Maugeri: Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Anatomy, Histology and Movement Sciences Section, School of Medicine, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Valentina Perciavalle: Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, 95100 Catania, Italy
Giuseppe Musumeci: Motor Activity Research Center (CRAM), University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-10

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.

Keywords: acute exercise; cognition; physical health; sports stress; blood lactate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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