Effect of acute physical exercise on inhibitory control in young adults: High-intensity indoor cycling session

Abstract

There is growing evidence that physical exercise (PE) may boost cognitive performance. However, criteria regarding PE intensity, duration, and frequency are still being studied. We hypothesize that high PE intensities have effects on inhibitory control. For this reason, our aim was to study the effect of acute PE on IC in healthy young students of a bachelor's degree in physical education and exercise via a 20-minute indoor cycling session at 80–90% HRmax intensity. We devised an experimental group design (n = 9) relative to a control group (n = 10) with pre-and-post-test IC measures. A Stroop task (two conditions) was administered to undergraduate students (Mage = 23.3, SD = 1.6) of a bachelor's degree program in Physical Education and Sports Sciences from a public university in Colombia. The computed MANOVA did not show an interaction effect between the experimental task of Stroop A-B x measure x group. However, a main effect of reduced response time was obtained after PE in the experimental group. Other main effects were observed in the number of correct and incorrect trials in the Stroop-B condition. The experimental group showed fewer correct answers after PE, and the control group showed fewer errors. It is concluded that high-intensity PE confers favorable effects on inhibitory control.