Cognitive and physiological effects of an acute physical activity intervention in elementary school children

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of an acute physical activity intervention that included cognitive engagement on executive functions and on cortisol level in young elementary school children. Half of the 104 participating children (6–8 years old) attended a 20-min sport sequence, which included cognitively engaging and playful forms of physical activity. The other half was assigned to a resting control condition. Individual differences in children's updating, inhibition, and shifting performance as well as salivary cortisol were assessed before (pre-test), immediately after (post-test), and 40 min after (follow-up) the intervention or control condition, respectively. Results revealed a significantly stronger improvement in inhibition in the experimental group compared to the control group, while it appeared that acute physical activity had no specific effect on updating and shifting. The intervention effect on inhibition leveled out 40 min after physical activity. Salivary cortisol increased significantly more in the experimental compared to the control group between post-test and follow-up and results support partly the assumed inverted U-shaped relationship between cortisol level and cognitive performance. In conclusion, results indicate that acute physical activity that includes cognitive engagement may have immediate positive effects on inhibition, but not necessarily on updating and shifting in elementary school children. This positive effect may partly be explained through cortisol elevation after acute physical activity.

The Role of Executive Functions for Dyadic Literacy Learning in Kindergarten

“…Flanker Fish demanded inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility to control attentional processing because children had to pay special attention to some features of the stimuli while inhibiting others and had to flexibly switch between game rules (Jäger, Schmidt, Conzelmann, & Roebers, 2014;Röthlisberger, Neuenschwander, Cimeli, Michel, & Roebers, 2012;Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2005). The Hearts & Flowers task assessed behavioral control.…”

Acute Effects of Aerobic Physical Activities on Attention and Concentration in School-aged Children

“…However, no significant acute effects of the intervention on updating and shifting performance were found. The results showed no significant intervention effect on inhibition after 40 min of cognitively engaging physical activity [3]. In contrast, Schmidt et al [6] examined 90 fifth-grade students' attention and concentration in revised d2 test before, immediately after, and 90 min after students' participating in 45-min coordinated, aerobic PA (experimental condition) compared to the control students who were taking a regular 45-min academic lesson.…”

“…To address this critical issue, investigating the acute effects of PA on increasing attention and concentration in school-aged children has been of great interest in school settings. Empirical studies have examined the acute effects of a single bout of different types, durations, and intensities of PA on attention and concentration performance in school-aged children [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. In a systematic review of 12 studies in acute effects of a single bout of PA on children's attention in the laboratory and the school settings, four out of seven studies showed that aerobic PA was positively associated with attention and concentration [11].…”

“…To date, a handful of studies showed empirical evidence that the single bout of aerobic PA with moderate intensity and varying durations of 10-min, 12-min, 15-min, 20-min, and 50-min yielded beneficial acute effects on attention and concentration in schoolaged children [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. A meta-analysis review indicates that the students aged 11-13 showed the largest effect of the positive association between PA and cognition.19 However, most of the studies did not report when the varying durations, intensities, and types of a single bout of PA intervention took place across the school time.…”

Effect of Physical Exercise on Cognition and Emotion in Children with ADHD

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