Behavioral Correlates of Working Memory Following Acute Aerobic and Resistance Exercise

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There is growing interest regarding the effect of acute exercise on cognition. Recent evidence suggests that the positive acute exercise-induced changes in cognition are greatest for tasks or task components with larger executive control demands. The further investigation of the influence of other modalities of exercise may lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for exercise-induced changes in cognition. PURPOSE: We investigated whether acute bouts of aerobic versus resistance exercise would have a differential effect on the executive control of working memory. METHODS: Twenty-one young adult participants (9 females, age = 20.2 ± 0.3 years) completed a VO2max test and 1-Rep Max strength tests on 7 major muscle groups. On days 2, 3, and 4 participants completed a working memory task prior to the start of, immediately following, and 30 minutes following the experimental condition, which consisted of either 30 minutes of seated rest, resistance exercise (3 sets of 8 - 12 repetitions at 80% of their 1RM for each of the 7 major muscle groups), or aerobic exercise (60 - 70% of VO2max). Working memory was measured via a modified Sternberg task, which manipulates the amount of information required at encoding, while measures of reaction time and response accuracy were examined. RESULTS: Task performance data indicated shorter reaction time immediately (693.1 ± 21.2 ms) and 30 minutes (664.3 ± 14.9 ms) following acute aerobic exercise relative to the pre-exercise baseline (750.5 ± 19.0 ms), with a larger reduction in RT occurring for task conditions requiring increased working memory capacity. No effects were observed following resistance exercise or seated rest. CONCLUSION: These data extend the acute exercise-cognition database, indicating that changes in cognition following an acute bout of exercise are modality specific with a disproportionately larger influence for aspects of cognition requiring increased amounts of executive control.