An acute bout of housework activities has beneficial effects on executive function

Abstract

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.

Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Neuroimaging in Exercise–Cognition Science: A Systematic, Methodology-Focused Review

“…A detailed overview about the used source-detector separations utilized in the remaining studies is given in Figure 4a. In two studies, individual fMRI-scans [111,112], and in seven studies, virtual registration (e.g., using 3-D digitizer), was performed [6,7,8,12,109,113,114]. In almost all reviewed studies, the optodes were placed over distinct parts of the prefrontal cortex.…”

“…A block design was used in eleven studies [11,13,78,99,100,102,103,104,107,112,113], whereas an event-related design was applied in ten studies [6,7,8,12,77,106,109,110,111,114]. In the remaining studies, cognitive testing was performed after the assessment of baseline brain activity [79,96,97,98,101,105,108,115,116,117,118,119,120].…”

“…In addition to low-pass filters, high-pass filters, bandpass filters, or—in one study each—filter methods based on principal component analysis (PCA) [11], Gaussian smoothing [119], or moving averages [79] were applied. In two studies, spike artefact removal [103,110] was conducted, and in four studies, signals from short-separation channels were used to correct for superficial artefacts [105,113,116,120].…”

“…In 33 studies, the mean (average) values of the measures of cortical activity (e.g., oxyHb, deoxyHb, or TOI) were calculated over a distinct time period and were used for further statistical analysis [6,7,8,10,11,12,13,77,78,79,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,119,120]. In other studies, the median value of the proxies of cortical activity over a distinct time period [118] or the peak value obtained during the task period [104] were used to perform the statistical analysis.…”

“…In other studies, the median value of the proxies of cortical activity over a distinct time period [118] or the peak value obtained during the task period [104] were used to perform the statistical analysis. The fNIRS data of the entire task period were used for averaging and statistical analysis in 18 studies [11,79,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,105,107,108,113,116,117,118,119,120]. As outlined in the following, 17 studies used different time periods for the subsequent statistical analysis: 4–11 s after trial onset [6,8,106,109], 6–9 s after trial onset [12,77], 6–10 s after trial onset [114], 6–8 s after trial onset for oxyHb, and 7–9 s after trial onset for deoxyHb [7], first 10 s after trial onset [115], 2 s before trial onset to 13.5 s after trial onset [111], 5 to 19.2 s after the onset of stimulation [112], first 4 s of a trial for the preparatory period and 4–12 s after trial onset for regulatory period [110], time to peak [104], a 12 s time period [96], 90 s prior onset of cognitive testing [10], last 10 s of task period for regular statistical analysis and 100-s stimulation windows for slope method analysis [13] and a 6-s delayed boxcar function convolved with a Gaussian kernel of dispersion of 6-s full-width at half-maximum for oxyHb [78].…”