Effect Of Short Term Maximal Exercise On Cognitive Function In Fit And Sedentary Women

Abstract

The effects of short term maximal exercise on cognitive performance are not well understood. Prior studies suggest that untrained subjects exhibit reduced cognitive performance after exercise, whereas trained subjects do not. Purpose Determine if exercise to exhaustion (defined as VO2max) affects simple reaction time (SRT), working memory (WM), visual spatial memory (VSM), continual processing (CP), code substitution (CS), and delayed code substitution (CSD) in fit and sedentary subjects. Methods Twenty-six apparently healthy 18–25 year old female college students participated in this study. Fit females (N=9, age 20.8 yrs, VO2max 55.3 ± 7.9 ml/kg/min), sedentary females (N=9, age 20.6 yrs, VO2max 38.1 ± 4.0 ml/kg/min), and non-exercising controls (N=8, age 21.1 yrs) were studied prior to and following treadmill exercise to exhaustion (VO2max), for the two exercising groups, and over the same time course for the non-exercising control group. Cognitive variables were assessed with ANAM (Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics): pre-exercise, post-exercise (≈ 5 min. post exercise), and during recovery (≈ 1 hour post exercise). The control group was used to determine if time affected the ANAM results. Data were analyzed using two-way repeated measures ANOVA, looking at effect of group, time, and interaction between group and time. Results No effect of time was observed, thus only trained and untrained subject data are presented. We examined the mean reaction time for subjects to get a correct answer during each test (mrtC) and thruput, a score accounting for both time and accuracy. The higher the thruput score, the better the test performance. No differences were present in WM and CSD. Fit subjects performed better than sedentary subjects for both mrtC and thruput for SRT, CPT, and CS. SRT: thruput was 12% better and mrtC was 15% faster. CPT: thruput was 13% better and mrtC was 12% faster. CS: thruput was 7% better and mrtC was 8% faster. For fit subjects VSM was 12% better than sedentary subjects and a trend towards significance present for VSM mrtC. Conclusions Trained subjects performed better and answered correctly more quickly on numerous tests compared to untrained subjects. Cognitive performance was not affected following short term maximal exercise. However, previous work from this lab demonstrated cognitive performance was affected by short term maximal exercise when cognition was assessed during exercise.