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PurposeAlthough acute bouts of exercise reportedly have beneficial effects on executive function, inactive people may find it difficult to start exercising. In this study, we focused on housework activities (HAs) that generate a sense of accomplishment and require a mild intensity of physical activity. We examined the impact of an acute bout of HA on executive function and oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) flow to related cortical regions.Materials and methodsTwenty-five participants (age, 18–21 years; mean, 19.88±0.60 years; six males and 19 females) underwent two experiments, ie, HA and control experiments, which were conducted on different days. Participants vacuumed a dirty floor in the HA experiment and mimicked the same motion with an unplugged vacuum cleaner on a clean floor in the control experiment.ResultsHeart rate recorded during the experiments showed no significant difference in the intensity of physical activity between control and HA groups. A questionnaire revealed a sense of accomplishment after completing the HA experiment. Participants performed the Stroop color–word task (SCWT) pre- and post-experiments; cortical hemodynamic changes were simultaneously monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Variation in Stroop interference scores for SCWT total response between pre- and post-experiments was signifi-cantly higher in the HA group than in the control group, and that for SCWT correct response showed a similar trend. Variation in the Stroop interference score for oxy-Hb flow to the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (R-VLPFC) showed the same trend.ConclusionThus, HAs may have a greater beneficial effect on executive function than other physical activities through the activation of PFC, including R-VLPFC.

Introduction: Previous studies have revealed that one-session focused attention meditation (FAM) can improve top-down attention control, which is one of the factors of working memory capacity (WMC). In addition, FAM shares various neural substrates, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), with WMC. Thus, we hypothesized that one-session FAM would improve WMC by activating the DLPFC evoked by the top-down attention control. In this study, we examined whether FAM modified WMC in individuals with little to no meditation experience. Methods:The participants were randomly assigned to either the FAM group (N = 13) or the control group (N = 17) who engaged in random thinking (i.e., mind-wandering).Before and after each 15-min intervention, the participants' WMC was measured according to the total number of correct answers in the Reading Span Test. During each intervention, functional near-infrared spectroscopy was employed to measure the blood flow in the participants' DLPFC and determine the top-down attention control effect.Results: In the FAM group, WMC increased, and the bilateral DLPFC was activated during the intervention. As for the control group, WMC decreased after the intervention, and the bilateral DLPFC was not activated during the intervention. A correlation was also found among all participants between the increase in WMC and the activation of the bilateral DLPFC. Conclusion:The study findings suggest that top-down attention control during FAM can activate the bilateral DLPFC and increase WMC among meditation novices. K E Y W O R D Sdorsolateral prefrontal cortex, focused attention meditation, near-infrared spectroscopy, working memory capacityThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background Keeping a certain level of physical activity has beneficial effects on the body itself but also, surprisingly, on cognition: specifically, physical high-intensity intermittent aerobic exercise (HIE) can show improvement on cognitive executive functions. Although, in some cases performing strength or aerobic training is problematic or not feasible. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) can induce the illusory feeling of ownership and agency over a moving virtual body, therefore showing comparable physiological reactions: for example, if an individual is sitting on a chair but his virtual body climbs a hill, the individual’s heart rate increases coherently, as if he is actually walking. In this study, we investigate whether this same illusion can show beneficial consequences on the body as well as on executive functions (using the color-word matching Stroop task) and on its neural substrates (using functional near-infrared spectroscopy [fNIRS]). Methods In a cross-over randomized controlled trial, 30 healthy young adults will experience HIE training in IVR (i.e. the virtual body will perform eight sets of 30 s of running followed by 30 s of slow walking, while the participant is completely still) according to two random-ordered conditions: during the experimental condition, the virtual body is displayed in first-person perspective (1PP), while in the control condition, the virtual body is displayed in third-person perspective (3PP). To confirm that individuals have the illusion of ownership and agency over the virtual body in 1PP (and not in 3PP), we will record the heart rate, in addition to subjective questionnaires. Before and after every IVR sessions (one week apart), we will measure cortical hemodynamic changes in the participants’ prefrontal cortex using the fNIRS device during the Stroop task’s execution. Discussion From a theoretical perspective, we could prove that the sense of body ownership and agency can modulate physical and cognitive parameters, even in the absence of actual movements; from a clinical perspective, these results could be useful to train cognition and body simultaneously, in a completely safe environment. Trial registration University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trial Registry, UMIN000034255. Registered on 1 October 2018.

Objectives A single session of brief focused attention meditation (FAM) has a state effect, which temporarily enhances response inhibition processes. However, previous research has two unanswered questions: (i) How long does the state effect last? (ii) How does effort toward FAM relate to the resulting state effect? Method Thirty-nine healthy participants participated in two sessions: FAM and sham meditation (SHAM). The participants conducted each meditation for 10 min. The state effect on response inhibition processes was observed as Stroop task performance immediately before and after each meditation, and 20, 40, and 60 min after each meditation. In addition, the subjective effort toward meditation was evaluated using a questionnaire immediately after each meditation. Results An analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction between session and time. In the post-hoc analysis, FAM showed significantly better Stroop task performance than the SHAM 60 min after meditation. Furthermore, using correlational analysis, we found that at 60 min, the higher the subjective effort, the better Stroop task performance. Conclusions In contrast to previous findings, the state effect was not found immediately after FAM but instead 60 min after. The results can be partially explained by cognitive fatigue; that is, the FAM may have the state effect of preventing cognitive fatigue. This state effect is greater when the subjective effort is greater.