Tai Chi better maintains prefrontal activation than treadmill running when the probe aligns with METH-related stimuli¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3 · i3 large
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i3 In the METH-congruent condition, the post-intervention Tai Chi group maintained prefrontal activation with moderate or large effect sizes versus the control group. → Zhang 2026

Evidence¶

Zhang 2026¶

Zhang, L., Li, Y., Wang, L., Zhang, X., Sun, Y., He, S. & Zhu, W. (2026). Effects of Tai Chi on attentional bias in men with methamphetamine use disorder. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00426-6

q3 · i3 · causal · r2

fNIRS results for the METH-congruent dot-probe condition in the same RCT; significant FDR-corrected group differences across ROIs, e.g. R-FPA: F = 11.514, pFDR = 0.010, ηp2 = 0.233; L-VLPFC: F = 9.267, pFDR = 0.010, ηp2 = 0.196.

"the post -intervention TC group was better able to maintain a certain level of activation and the presence of moderate or large effect sizes in various brain regions of the prefrontal cortex in the performance of a dot-probe task (when the point of detection was aligned with the METH-related stimulus) on average, compared with the control group."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Response accuracy on the dot-probe task is high and does not differ between Tai Chi and control groups — related
• Both groups' prefrontal activation decreased after intervention, but the Tai Chi group declined to a lesser extent — related
• Tai Chi better maintains prefrontal oxy-Hb beta values than treadmill running during the dot-probe task in the neutral-congruent condition — related
• A 12-week moderate-intensity Tai Chi intervention reduces attentional bias scores in men with MUD more than moderate-intensity treadmill running — related