Cardiorespiratory Fitness Is Associated with Selective Attention in Healthy Male High-School Students

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have shown associations of physical fitness and cognition in children and in younger and older adults. However, knowledge about associations in high-school adolescents and young adults is sparse. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association of physical fitness, measured as maximal oxygen uptake (V·O2max), muscle mass, weekly training, and cognitive function in the executive domains of selective attention and inhibitory control, in healthy male high-school students.Methods: Fifty-four males (17.9 ± 0.9 years, 72 ± 11 kg and 182 ± 7 cm) completed a V·O2max test, a body composition test and a visual cognitive task based on the Posner cue paradigm with three types of stimuli with different attentional demands (i.e., stimuli presentation following no cue, valid cue or invalid cue presentations). The task consisted of 336 target stimuli, where 56 (17%) of the target stimuli appeared without a cue (no cue), 224 (67%) appeared in the same rectangle as the cue (valid cue) and 56 (17%) appeared in the rectangle opposite to the cue (invalid cue). Mean reaction time (RT) and corresponding errors was calculated for each stimuli type. Total task duration was 9 min and 20 s In addition, relevant background information was obtained in a questionnaire.Results: Linear mixed model analyses showed that higher V·O2max was associated with faster RT for stimuli following invalid cue (Estimate = −2.69, SE = 1.03, p = 0.011), and for stimuli following valid cue (Estimate = −2.08, SE = 1.03, p = 0.048). There was no association of muscle mass and stimuli (F = 1.01, p = 0.397) or of weekly training and stimuli (F = 0.99, p = 0.405).Conclusion: The results suggest that cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with cognitive performance in healthy male high-school students in the executive domains of selective attention.

Higher Cardiorespiratory Fitness is Associated with Reduced Functional Brain Connectivity During Performance of the Stroop Task

“…Consistent with our suppression hypothesis, this is likely related to the exertion of top-down control operations within visual attentional circuitry [10,32] acting on bottom-up processing centers involved in reading words during the Stroop task [11,12]. When individuals are asked to inhibit the automatic response set of reading, it may be that those with higher CRF are more effectively able to use top-down control operations [4], partly supported by parietal regions, to suppress the areas of the striate and extrastriate cortices that detect word features [7,15]. This heightened suppression of brain areas associated with automatic responses (i.e., reading) may indicate that individuals with higher CRF perform executive functions, such as attentional and inhibitory control, more efficiently than those with lower CRF because of enhanced top-down control of brain areas responsible for processing task-irrelevant dimensions of stimuli.</para> Better behavioral Stroop task performance, i.e., faster RT in the incongruent condition, was associated with reduced connectivity between the left angular gyrus and VWFA.…”

“…Higher cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has often been associated with better performance on the ISSN 2213-6304/19/$35.00 © 2019 -IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved cognitively-challenging conditions of executive function (EF) tasks, such as the incongruent conditions of the Stroop and Flanker tasks and the dual-task condition in dual-task paradigms [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Unfortunately, despite this relatively consistent association across the literature, we have a very poor understanding of the mechanisms by which CRF is associated with enhanced EF.…”

Aerobic Fitness Level Moderates the Association Between Cannabis Use and Executive Functioning and Psychomotor Speed Following Abstinence in Adolescents and Young Adults

“…Aerobic fitness has been linked to better executive functioning, spatial memory, psychomotor speed, and attention in adolescents (Lee et al, 2014; Wengaard et al, 2017), and attention and working memory in young adults (Hwang et al, 2017). VO 2 max (aka maximal oxygen consumption) provides a quantitative measure of one’s capability and capacity for AE (Bassett & Howley, 2000).…”

Aerobik Kapasite ve Bilişsel Performans İlişkisi

“…Yine bir başka çalışmada sağlıklı erkek lise öğrencilerine seçici dikkat testi uygulanarak, yüksek VO 2maks ile daha hızlı reaksiyon arasında bir ilişki olduğu sonucu elde edilmiştir (61). Bir çalışmada ise 7-9 yaş aralığındaki çocuklara; VO-2maks ölçümü, seçici dikkati ölçen modifiye Eriksen flanker task, matematik ve sözlü bir testten oluşan çalışma belleği testi, okuma, matematik ve heceleme konularını içeren Kaufman akademik başarı testi uygulanmıştır.…”