Abstract
Executive function includes the core components of working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. A wealth of studies demonstrate that working memory and inhibitory control improve following a single bout of exercise; however, a paucity – and equivocal – body of work has demonstrated a similar benefit for cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility underlies switching between different attentional- and motor-related goals, and a potential limitation of previous work examining this component in an exercise context is that they included tasks involving non-executive processes (i.e., numerosity, parity, and letter judgments). To address this issue, Experiment 1 employed a 20-min bout of aerobic exercise and examined pre- and immediate post-exercise cognitive flexibility via stimulus-driven (SD) and minimally delayed (MD) saccades ordered in an AABB task-switching paradigm. Stimulus-driven saccades are a standard task requiring a response at target onset, whereas MD saccades are a non-standard and top-down task requiring a response only after the target is extinguished. Work has shown that RTs for a SD saccade preceded by a MD saccade are longer than when a SD saccade is preceded by its same task-type, whereas the converse switch does not influence performance (i.e., the unidirectional switch-cost). Experiment 1 yielded a 28 ms and 8 ms unidirectional switch-cost pre- and post-exercise, respectively (ps < 0.001); however, the magnitude of the switch-cost was reduced post-exercise (p = 0.005). Experiment 2 involved a non-exercise control condition and yielded a reliable and equivalent magnitude unidirectional switch-cost at a pre- (28 ms) and post-break (26 ms) assessment (ps < 0.001). Accordingly, a single-bout of exercise improved task-switching efficiency and thereby provides convergent evidence that exercise provides a global benefit to the core components of executive function.
Highlights
Executive function entails the core components of working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility (Diamond, 2013) and is mediated via an extensive frontoparietal network (Vincent et al, 2008)
Trials were divided into 80 task-repeat (e.g., SD or minimally delayed (MD) saccade preceded by its same task counterpart) and 80 task-switch (e.g., SD saccade preceded by a MD saccade or vice versa) trials
MD task-switch and task-repeat saccades at pre- and post-exercise assessments did not reliably differ (all t(17) = −1.08 and −0.74, ps = 0.147 and 0.234), and TOST statistics indicated that the aforementioned contrasts were near – or at – a conventional level of statistical equivalence (ts(17) = 1.59 and 2.10, ps = 0.065 and 0.026)
Summary
Executive function entails the core components of working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility (Diamond, 2013) and is mediated via an extensive frontoparietal network (Vincent et al, 2008). Exercise and Cognitive Flexibility functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) to examine n-back performance pre- and post- 20-min of moderate intensity aerobic exercise (via cycle ergometer at 60–70% of estimated maximal heart rate: HRmax). Chang et al (2014) examined Stroop interference performance pre- and post- 20-min of aerobic exercise (via cycle ergometer) at a moderate intensity (65% VO2max). The Stroop interference task is an exemplar measure of inhibitory control requiring that participants ignore the standard response of reporting a word name (e.g., RED) and instead provide a non-standard response of reporting the (incongruent) ink color in which the word is written (for review, see MacLeod, 1991). The Stroop interference task is an exemplar measure of inhibitory control requiring that participants ignore the standard response of reporting a word name (e.g., RED) and instead provide a non-standard response of reporting the (incongruent) ink color in which the word is written (for review, see MacLeod, 1991). Chang et al (2014) reported a 22 ms reduction in Stroop interference response times from pre- to post-exercise. Chang et al (2014) and Li et al (2014) attributed their findings to an exercise-based improvement in working memory and inhibitory control, respectively, with such benefits linked to: (1) increased catecholamine (Zouhal et al, 2008) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Knaepen et al, 2010) concentration and (2) blood flow related temperature and mechanical changes to the brain’s neural and glial networks that improve neural efficiency (i.e., the hemo-neural hypothesis) (Moore and Cao, 2008) and functional connectivity (Kelly et al, 2017)
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