A post-exercise facilitation of executive function is independent of aerobically supported metabolic costs

A Single Bout of Aerobic Exercise Provides an Immediate “Boost” to Cognitive Flexibility

“…A second limitation is that the present work employed only a 20-min session at a moderate intensity. Although previous work by our group has shown a postexercise benefit in oculomotor inhibitory control for 10-and 20-min sessions of aerobic exercise across a continuum of metabolically sustainable intensities (i.e., moderate [80% of lactate threshold (LT)] to heavy intensity (50% of the difference between LT and VO 2peak/max ) (Heath et al, 2018;Petrella et al, 2019) it is possible that the distinct neural circuitry associated with cognitive flexibility (Gilbert and Burgess, 2008) may show a distinct dose-response relationship to a singlebout of aerobic exercise. It might be the case that an exercise session less than or greater than the 20-min used here (or different exercise intensities) may not influence task-switching efficiency.…”

“…The recommended power for this type of research is 0.8 and based on our group's previous work (Heath et al, 2018;Samani and Heath, 2018;Petrella et al, 2019;Dirk et al, 2020) it was estimated that 15-18 participants would provide statistical power of 0.8 with an alpha level of 0.5. Eighteen participants (10 female and 8 male: age range 18-25 years) from the University of Western Ontario community volunteered for this study.…”

“…The exercise session included a 2.5 min warm-up at 50% of participant's HR max which was followed by a step-transition to a moderate intensity (i.e., 80% of HR max ) for 20 min. A moderate intensity was used based on our group's work showing that a continuum of moderate to veryheavy exercise intensities does not differentially influence a postexercise benefit to inhibitory control (Heath et al, 2018;Samani and Heath, 2018;Petrella et al, 2019;Dirk et al, 2020). During the exercise intervention, participants adjusted the resistance lever on the cycle ergometer to ensure that their heart rate was within the instructed level.…”

Evaluating the efficacy of an iPad® app in determining a single bout of exercise benefit to executive function

“…As a result, tasks involving conjoint executive and non-executive components may – at times – be insufficient for detecting postexercise executive function benefits. In support of this view, recent studies employing the antisaccade task demonstrated that a single bout of exercise elicits a robust executive function benefit (Dirk et al, 2020 ; Heath et al, 2018 ; Petrella et al, 2019 ; Samani & Heath, 2018 ; Tari et al, 2020 ). Antisaccades require a goal-directed eye movement mirror-symmetrical to a target and the non-standard nature of the task (i.e., decoupling the spatial relations between stimulus and response) results in longer reaction times (RT) and less accurate and more variable endpoints than their prosaccade (i.e., saccade toward a target) counterparts (for review see, Munoz & Everling, 2004 ).…”

“…Indeed, Chang et al concluded that the largest positive benefit to cognition occurs 11 to 20 min (see also Lambourne & Tomporowski, 2010 ) following cessation of a 20-min bout of moderate-intensity exercise. It is, however, important to recognize that work has shown that young and older adults exhibit a benefit up to 60-min postexercise (Hung et al, 2013 ; Joyce et al, 2009 ; Shukla & Heath, 2021 ) for an exercise duration as brief as 10-min (Johnson et al, 2016 ; Samani & Heath, 2018 ; Tari et al, 2020 ) and across the continuum of metabolically sustainable work rates (i.e., from light to very heavy-intensity) (Heath et al, 2018 ; Petrella et al, 2019 ; Tari et al 2021 ). A fourth, and perhaps most salient moderator, is the cognitive domain that is assessed.…”