Abstract
Psychosocial stress has negative effects on cognition in adolescents. The aim of this study was to investigate whether physical exercise can buffer such effects on inhibitory control and associated cortical brain areas. Forty-two male high school students aged 16–20 years and with either low or high exercise levels performed a Stroop task under stress-free conditions and after the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Oxygenation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. For inhibitory control, there was no significant primary effect of condition (F(1,40) = 1.09, p = 303., ηp² = 0.027) and no significant condition × group interaction (F(1,40) = 2.40, p = 0.129, ηp² = 0.057). For DLPFC oxygenation, a significant primary effect of condition was observed (F (1,38) = 6.10, p = 0.018, ηp² = 0.138). However, the condition × group interaction (F (1,38) = 0.05, p = 0.823, ηp² = 0.001) remained not significant. Adolescents’ exercise level was not associated with inhibitory control before and after stress. An impact of stress on a neurocognitive level was observed.
Highlights
Performing cognitively challenging tasks, even under high stress, is of great importance in society [1,2]
In the present study, we aim to investigate the influences of exercise on inhibitory control and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) oxygenation in the presence of acute psychosocial stress
For verification of the group separation based on self-report, independent samples t-tests were calculated and showed that the groups significantly differed in vigorous physical activity (VPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (Table 1)
Summary
Performing cognitively challenging tasks, even under high stress, is of great importance in society [1,2]. Adolescents have been reported to be at increasing risk for high stress [4]. In a study with 1496 Swiss adolescents, 56% of the participants reported being stressed or overworked often or very often [4]. Since the last few years before graduation are usually perceived as stressful [5], there is a need to examine strategies that have the potential to facilitate the maintenance of cognitive function even under stress. When a stimulus is appraised as harmful or threatening, a physiological stress response is triggered
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