Abstract
In a recent study, the differential effects of prolonged physiologically challenging exercise upon two executive processes (cognitive control and working memory) were investigated. However, the impact of exercise on the selective inhibition task employed was debatable and needed further analysis to dissociate the effects induced by exercise intensity from those induced by the time spent on task upon cognitive control outcomes. In this study, we propose a thorough analysis of these data, using a generalized mixed model on a trial-by-trial basis and a new measure of the strength of the automatic response based on reaction time distribution, to disentangle the effect of physical fatigue from cognitive fatigue. Despite the prolonged duration of exercise, no decline in cognitive performance was found in response to physical fatigue. The only change observed during 60-min exercise was an acceleration of the correct trials and an increase of errors for incompatible trials. This pattern, shown during low and physiologically challenging exercise, supports the occurrence of cognitive fatigue induced by the repetition of the cognitive tasks over time.
Highlights
Cognitive control is essential to psychological functioning, allowing individuals to have flexible, and goal-directed behaviors
Many studies have been conducted to identify how cognitive control may be influenced by physical exercise [e.g., (Davranche et al, 2009, 2015; Joyce et al, 2009; Schmit et al, 2015)]
While exercising at a high or very low intensity, participants were required to perform 10 blocks consisting of a cognitive control task (Eriksen task), a working memory task (n-back) and a no-task period
Summary
Cognitive control is essential to psychological functioning, allowing individuals to have flexible, and goal-directed behaviors. The duration and intensity of exercise and the nature of the task have been put forward to explain the heterogeneity of the findings reported in the literature (Dietrich and Audiffren, 2011; Davranche et al, 2015). In this context, Tempest et al (2017) tracked the dynamics of executive performance using two different cognitive tasks during cycling-exercise over a prolonged duration (60-min).
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