Preprint · Jan 2026
Tai Chi, Brain Activity and Psychological Outcomes: A Systematic Scoping Review
By Yue F
Tai Chi is a traditional Chinese mind-body practice characterized by coordinated movement, postural control, breathing regulation, and focused attention (Larkey et al., 2009; Yeung et al., 2018). Across clinical and nonclinical populations, Tai Chi has been studied as a non-pharmacological intervention for outcomes such as stress, anxiety, depression, mood disturbance, and broader psychological well-being (C. Wang et al., 2010; F. Wang et al., 2014). Recent quantitative syntheses also suggest that Tai Chi may improve anxiety, depressive symptoms, or perceived stress in at least some populations, although effect estimates vary according to population, comparator, intervention dose, and study quality (Kraft et al., 2024; Kuang et al., 2024; Zhu et al., 2024). In the neuroscience literature, Tai Chi has been examined using functional and neurophysiological methods including functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy to investigate brain activation, connectivity, oscillatory activity, cerebral hemodynamics, or brain metabolism (Chen et al., 2022a; Cui et al., 2019; Pan et al., 2018; H. Wang et al., 2025; M. Wang & Lyu, 2024). Primary studies have reported Tai Chi-associated changes in resting-state or task-related neural measures in older adults, university students, and clinical samples, including altered default mode or insular connectivity, greater prefrontal activation, and changes in frontal EEG band power (Chen et al., 2022b; Liu et al., 2019; Tao et al., 2017; M. Wang & Lyu, 2024; Wu et al., 2018; Xu et al., 2020). Several of these studies have concurrently measured psychological or related mental outcomes, including anxiety, depression, stress, fatigue, emotional memory, or psychoemotional state (Solianik et al., 2021; H. Wang et al., 2025; Xu et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2023). The literature on psychological outcomes has already been synthesized in some systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which have evaluated Tai Chi in relation to psychological well-being, depression, anxiety, and stress across heterogeneous populations (Sani et al., 2023; C. Wang et al., 2010; F. Wang et al., 2014). By contrast, neuroimaging-focused evidence synthesis has been comparatively limited. For instance a systematic review published in 2018 (Pan et al., 2018) identified only 11 eligible studies in healthy older adults and found that the field was dominated by fMRI and EEG designs. Since that review, the field has expanded to additional populations and modalities, including pilot resting-state fMRI studies in major depressive disorder and in college students with anxiety/depression, randomized or controlled EEG studies in university students, and fNIRS studies of prefrontal activation in older adults and during acute Tai Chi tasks (H. Wang et al., 2025; M. Wang & Lyu, 2024; Xu et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2023). Despite this growth, the evidence base remains methodologically heterogeneous with respect to population characteristics, Tai Chi style and regimen, comparator conditions, neural acquisition and analysis methods, and psychological outcome selection (Pan et al., 2018; F. Wang et al., 2014). Existing reviews have either synthesized psychological outcomes without integrating neural measures, or summarized brain imaging and EEG studies in older adults without specifically mapping concurrent psychological outcomes across populations and contexts (Pan et al., 2018; C. Wang et al., 2010; F. Wang et al., 2014). A scoping review is especially appropriate when the aim is to map the breadth, characteristics, and knowledge gaps of a heterogeneous body of evidence rather than to estimate a single pooled intervention effect (Peters et al., 2020; Tricco et al., 2018). Against this background, a systematic scoping review is warranted to integrate the currently dispersed literature at the intersection of Tai Chi, brain activity, and psychological outcomes. The objectives of this review were to identify and map human studies that examined Tai Chi in relation to at least one brain-activity measure and at least one psychological outcome; to describe the populations, Tai Chi exposure characteristics, neural modalities, and psychological domains represented in the literature; and to summarize whether included studies reported temporal or statistical links between neural findings and psychological outcomes.