Dominika Maria Pindus

Dominika Maria Pindus serves as Assistant Professor in Kinesiology and Community Health and the Neuroscience Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with affiliate appointments at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Center for Social & Behavioral Science. Her research integrates exercise science, cognitive neuroscience, and public health to investigate how physical activity and sedentary behavior influence brain function across the lifespan.

Her primary research focuses on:

• Mechanisms linking sedentary behavior to cognitive decline in aging populations
• Effects of high-intensity interval training on neural connectivity in older adults
• Physical activity interventions for children with obesity and behavioral issues
• Neurophysiological responses to exercise using fNIRS and ERP methodologies

Current projects include the SITLess and HIIT2SITLess pilot trials examining cognitive outcomes from interrupting prolonged sitting.

Her 43 scholarly outputs demonstrate strong interdisciplinary trends, with recent articles spanning BMJ Open, Advanced Science, and International Journal of Psychophysiology. Key thematic clusters include sedentary behavior interventions (25% of fingerprint), executive function enhancement (19%), obesity-related cognition (25%), and neural mechanisms of physical activity (34%).

Media coverage includes a 2023 study on exercise intensity and attentional control in late-adolescent girls, disseminated through 14 X posts, 19 Bluesky references, and 30 Mendeley readers.

Dr. Pindus collaborates extensively with international teams across 6 similar profiles in physical activity psychology, with research networks spanning multiple countries. Her work emphasizes translational applications for classroom settings, clinical obesity management, and aging populations.