Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a single bout of exercise on neurocognitive function in preadolescent children and young adults by determining the modulatory role of age and the neuroelectrical mechanism(s) underlying the association between acute exercise and executive function. Twenty preadolescents and 20 young adults completed the Stroop test, and neuroelectrical activity was recorded during two treatment sessions performed in a counterbalanced order. Exercise treatments involved moderate intensity aerobic exercise for 20 min as the main exercise and two 5 min periods of warm-up and cool-down. The control treatment participants read for a similar duration of time. Acute exercise improved participant reaction times on the Stroop test, regardless of Stroop congruency, and greater beneficial effects were observed in young adults compared to those in preadolescents. The P3 amplitudes increased after acute exercise in preadolescents and young adults, but acute exercise induced lower conflict sustained potential (conflict SP) amplitudes in preadolescent children. Based on these findings, age influences the beneficial effect of acute exercise on cognitive performance in general. Furthermore, the event-related brain potential differences attributed to acute exercise provide a potential clue to the mechanisms that differentiate the effects of acute exercise on individuals from preadolescence to young adulthood.
Highlights
The positive associations between exercise and a variety of psychological health outcomes, including reductions in anxiety and depression and improvements in emotion and mood, are well documented [1]
Acute exercise is associated with improvements in a wide range of cognitive functions, including basic information processing, attention, crystallized intelligence, and executive function [4, 10], but a disproportionately larger benefit is observed for cognition related to executive function [13]
Regarding the manipulation of the exercise intensity, the mean heart rates during exercise sessions were 157.77 ± 4.71 and 150.79 ± 7.65 for preadolescent children and young adults, respectively; these values were within the range of 60% to 75% of the heart rate reserve (HRR)
Summary
The positive associations between exercise and a variety of psychological health outcomes, including reductions in anxiety and depression and improvements in emotion and mood, are well documented [1]. The beneficial effects of exercise on psychological health extend to cognition [2, 3], and even a single bout of aerobic exercise (i.e., acute exercise) has consistently been shown to positively influence cognitive function [4]. Acute exercise is associated with improvements in a wide range of cognitive functions, including basic information processing, attention, crystallized intelligence, and executive function [4, 10], but a disproportionately larger benefit is observed for cognition related to executive function [13]. This research gap in children has generated several unanswered questions regarding executive function across childhood and adolescence [19] and how acute exercise affects executive function from the developmental
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