{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T05:03:48Z","timestamp":1789967028869,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789948800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n In this quasi-experimental study, we examined whether AI-assisted wushu (Chinese martial arts) routine training, delivered through camera-based immediate post-performance movement feedback, was associated with greater improvements in mental health, cognitive performance, and cardiovascular function than conventional wushu instruction among university students.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n \n A campus-based, two-group, quasi-experimental pre\u2013post design with non-randomized allocation by course section was conducted over 6\u202fweeks among 298 physical education undergraduates (\n n<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f149 per group). Outcomes included perceived stress, anxiety, psychological well-being, and emotion regulation (mental health); Stroop, digit-span, n-back, and Trail-Making Test performance and a composite executive-function index (cognitive performance); and resting heart rate, blood pressure, heart-rate variability, vital capacity, and heart-rate recovery (cardiovascular function). Post-intervention group differences were modeled with ANCOVA adjusting for baseline scores, age, sex, and BMI; associations between movement-quality gain and outcome change were examined with Pearson correlation and covariate-adjusted bootstrapped mediation, with false discovery rate correction applied.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Groups did not differ significantly at baseline (all\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f&gt;\u202f0.07). Both groups improved on every outcome (all\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f&lt;\u202f0.001), and after adjustment the AI-assisted group showed somewhat larger gains, including for perceived stress (adjusted mean difference \u22121.20, 95% CI\u202f\u2212\u202f1.74 to \u22120.66), psychological well-being (+1.15, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.91), n-back accuracy (+2.37, 95% CI 1.59 to 3.15), the executive-function index (+0.12, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.18), resting heart rate (\u22121.09\u202fbpm, 95% CI\u202f\u2212\u202f1.58 to \u22120.60), and vital capacity (+51.6\u202fmL, 95% CI 34.8 to 68.4; all\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f&lt;\u202f0.03, retained after FDR correction). Movement-quality gain correlated modestly with cognitive-affective but not cardiovascular improvement (\n r<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f0.17\u20130.22,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f&lt;\u202f0.01), and partially mediated group effects on emotion regulation and executive function.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n These findings therefore support a multiple-pathway interpretation of the incremental AI-feedback effect rather than a single motor-skill mechanism. Given the non-randomized design, these associations are preliminary rather than definitive evidence of causal benefit; randomized, longer-term studies with appropriate active controls are needed to confirm mechanisms, durability, and generalizability.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1932711","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T04:28:31Z","timestamp":1789964911000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Effects of AI-assisted wushu training on mental health, cognitive performance, and cardiovascular function in university students: a quasi-experimental study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Jiannan","family":"Yang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan Normal University","place":["Changsha, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ziyin","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan University of Chinese Medicine","place":["Changsha, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ziwu","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Henan University of Technology","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1222","DOI":"10.1111\/jcpp.13606","article-title":"Prevalence and associated factors of depression and anxiety symptoms among college students: a systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"63","author":"Li","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Child Psychol Psychiatry"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2864","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph16162864","article-title":"Changes in 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