Abstract
Evidence from recent studies showed that acute aerobic exercise results in improvements in different cognitive functions. The goal of this study was to assess the influence of acute bouts of aerobic versus resistance exercise on attention and executive function in adults. Thirty-nine physically active adults (age = 52±8 yr) served as participants. Each participant visited the laboratory four times: on the first visit participants performed a cognitive test (NeuroTrax) followed by an aerobic fitness assessment, as well as maximal strength test composed of six exercises. During visits 2–4, participants completed the cognitive test before and after the experimental condition, which consisted of either 25 min of aerobic exercise or resistance exercise, or watching a recorded interview show in a seated position (control condition). Findings indicated significantly higher changes in scores of attention after acute aerobic exercise (mean change 3.46, 95% CI -0.32, 7.27) than following the control condition (mean change -0.64, 95% CI -2.23, 0.96). The changes following resistance exercise (mean change -0.67, 95% CI -4.47, 3.13) were not significantly different from the changes following the control condition. Executive function scores showed a marginally significant improvement following acute aerobic (mean change 4.06, 95% CI 1.68, 6.44) and resistance exercise (mean change 3.69, 95% CI 0.78, 6.60), but not after control (mean change 0.91, 95% CI -1.21, 3.02). We suggest that adults should consider augmenting both modalities into their training routines, which may improve their cognition in addition to providing other physical benefits.
Highlights
Life expectancy is steadily increasing, with a large aging population all over the world [1]
No differences were found between the effect of resistance exercise relative to the control condition (F1,38 = 0, p = 0.99), or between the aerobic exercise to the resistance exercise (F1,38 = 2.64, p = 0.11)
The present findings further support the knowledge about improved attention following an acute bout of aerobic exercise
Summary
Life expectancy is steadily increasing, with a large aging population all over the world [1]. The findings of a positive effect of chronic exercise led researchers to raise questions about the effect of acute exercise–a single bout of exercise–on cognitive performance, and this has become a topic of interest for many studies in young populations [11,12,13,14] and in adult populations [15,16,17,18,19,20] Results of these studies show that 20 minutes of aerobic exercise improved reaction time [17,19] and had some beneficial effect on cognitive flexibility [18,20], while acute resistance exercise, performed for approximately 30 minutes, showed a trend of having a positive effect on executive functions [15,16]
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