Acute effects of high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity continuous exercise on BDNF and irisin levels and neurocognitive performance in late middle-aged and older adults

Acute Effects of Different Exercise Intensities on Executive Function and Oculomotor Performance in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Moderate-Intensity Continuous Exercise vs. High-Intensity Interval Exercise

“…Another possibility is that prosaccades operate independently of the vector inversion and response suppression executive demands ( Pierrot-Deseilligny et al, 1995 ). However, since the antisaccade task is linked to increased activation of executive-related frontoparietal networks that support maintenance of high-level task rules ( Ettinger et al, 2008 ; Everling and Johnston, 2013 ; Weiler et al, 2015 ), the present results support the premise that a single bout of 30 min of HIIE and MICE are effective in terms of improving the brain’s executive control in late middle-aged and older adults ( Tsai et al, 2021 ). It is noteworthy that, relative to Petrella et al’s (2019) study, pre- and post-oculomotor assessments were performed in separate sessions interleaved by a non-exercise (REST) condition in the present study, and non-significant changes in RTs in this intervention mode were observed.…”

“…Similar to Tsai et al's (2014a) study exploring various neurocognitive indices after acute aerobic exercise in young adults with different cardiorespiratory fitness levels when performing a visuospatial attention task and finding the facilitated RTs and cognitive electrophysiological effects (e.g., event-related potential P3 amplitudes and Contingent Negative Variation), the participants in the present study showed significantly shorter RTs following a single bout of HIIE and MICE when performing the executive-related oculomotor paradigm. Both previous and recent studies demonstrate that a reliable post-exercise improvement in executive functions is supported by acute-exercise-based increases in regional cerebral blood flow to executive-related cortical structures and, importantly and specifically, by enhancing arousal, cortical efficiency, and attentional allocation in adults when performing cognitive tasks involving inhibitory control (Dietrich and Audiffren, 2011;Tsai et al, 2014aTsai et al, , 2018Tsai et al, , 2021Verburgh et al, 2014;Formenti et al, 2020). However, it is worth noting that shorter RTs post-as compared to pre-exercise interventions were only found in the antisaccade task, but not in the prosaccade one in the present study.…”

“…A robust body of literature has shown that a single bout of moderate intensity continuous exercise (MICE) can produce a transient facilitating effect on executive functions in various populations (Kamijo et al, 2007;Pontifex et al, 2009;Hung et al, 2013;Tsai et al, 2014aTsai et al, , 2016bTsai et al, , 2018Hakansson et al, 2017;Formenti et al, 2020). High-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) is characterized by brief, intermittent bursts of intensive aerobic exercise interspersed with brief periods of lowintensity exercise or recovery (Laursen and Jenkins, 2002) and has recently proposed as a time-efficient alternative to traditional cardiorespiratory exercise (Alves et al, 2014;Tsai et al, 2021). Previous studies have reported that HIIE is more effective than MICE for increasing cardiovascular/metabolic health and exercise capacity in healthy individuals (Helgerud et al, 2007).…”

“…Such a physical exercise mode has been promoted as a low-risk, practical, and time-efficient approach to optimizing health and well-being, thereby reducing the burden of chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity ( Lucas et al, 2015 ). Although both of these aerobic exercise modes (i.e., HIIE and MICE) have been reported to modulate the impact on behavioral and cognitive electrophysiological performance, the potential effects are still somewhat equivocal at the moment ( Tsukamoto et al, 2016 ; Schwarck et al, 2019 ; Tsai et al, 2021 ).…”

The Immediate and Sustained Effects of Moderate-Intensity Continuous Exercise and High-Intensity Interval Exercise on Working Memory

“… Northey et al (2019) also found that the HIIE intervention elicited positive moderate-to-large effects on working memory in comparison with MICE. However, some studies proposed that MICE maximizes exercise-induced cognitive benefits versus HIIE ( McMorris and Hale, 2012 ; Pyke et al, 2020 ) and contributes to a significant improvement in working memory performance relative to pre-intervention ( Tsai et al, 2021 ). The existing literature remains inconsistent about which modality of exercise, MICE or HIIE, is the more effective in improving working memory.…”