Physical activity enhances theta-periodicity of visual attentional allocation

The traditional notion of a sustained visual spotlight of attention has been challenged by behavioral and neural evidence showing that attention fluctuates rhythmically in the theta band (3-8 Hz). In rodents, locomotion drives hippocampal theta oscillations that support cue sampling during navigation, enhancing sensory encoding and decision-making. This raises the question of whether physical activity (PA) similarly modulates theta-based attentional sampling in humans. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found that discrimination accuracy (DA) increased following PA, accompanied by stronger theta-band modulation of both DA and reaction times (RTs) in trial-by-trial spectral analyses. Critically, PA elevated frontal theta power after cue presentation and shifted the coupling of visual high-frequency activity (HFA; 80-150 Hz) toward an encoding-sensitive theta phase. Moreover, target-evoked HFA exhibited stronger theta-range fluctuations after PA. Together, these findings demonstrate that short bouts of movement can tune the brain's intrinsic theta-band sampling mechanism, thereby linking PA to enhanced visual attention.