Effect of acute exercise and cardiovascular fitness on cognitive function: An event‐related cortical desynchronization study

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the effects of acute exercise and cardiovascular fitness on cognitive function using the Stroop test and event-related desynchronization (ERD) in an aged population. Old adults (63.10 ± 2.89 years) were first assigned to either a high-fitness or a low-fitness group, and they were then subjected to an acute exercise treatment and a reading control treatment in a counterbalanced order. Alpha ERD was recorded during the Stroop test, which was administered after both treatments. Acute exercise improved cognitive performance regardless of the level of cognition, and old adults with higher fitness levels received greater benefits from acute exercise. Additionally, acute exercise, rather than overall fitness, elicited greater lower and upper alpha ERDs relative to the control condition. These findings indirectly suggest that the beneficial effects of acute exercise on cognitive performance may result from exercise-induced attentional control observed during frontal neural excitation.

The effect of acute exercise on cognitive performance in children with and without ADHD

“…That is, performance was improved following exercise compared to performance after the control condition, and the size of this effect was not distinguishable between processing speed and inhibition (i.e., the interaction effect was non-significant). These findings are similar to those reported by Chang et al 29 in a study of the effects of acute exercise on Stroop Task performance by older adults, but are different from those of Chang et al 16 who observed a condition by task interaction for children showing that benefits from exercise were specific to part C (inhibition) of the Stroop Task. The reason for the difference in findings between the two studies with children is not completely clear.…”

Acute Exercise and Neurocognitive Development in Preadolescents and Young Adults: An ERP Study

“…Additionally, the interaction of acute exercise and cognition may be moderated by individual differences, such as cardiovascular fitness. For example, individuals with higher cardiovascular fitness exhibited superior cognitive performance following acute exercise compared to their counterparts with lower fitness [97]. Other factors that differ among individuals are education level and inhibitory control capacity.…”

Acute exercise has a general facilitative effect on cognitive function: A combined ERP temporal dynamics and BDNF study

“…A computerized version of the Stroop task (Chang, Chu, Wang, Wang et al, ) was administered using Stim 2 software (Neurosoft Labs, Inc., Sterling VA). The Stroop task consisted of two types of stimuli/task conditions: congruent and incongruent.…”

“…For instance, Lichtman and Poser () observed a general improvement on both Stroop color and Stroop color‐word conditions after a 45‐min exercise session that involved an aerobic run and other physical activities. In more recent studies, acute moderate intensity exercise for approximately 20 min has been shown to positively affect multiple Stroop task conditions (Chang, Chi et al, ; Chang, Chu, Wang, Song, & Wei, ), suggesting a general facilitative effect of acute exercise on multiple cognitive functions. The conflicting support for these two hypotheses plausibly results from methodologies employed in previous studies such as the exercise modality (e.g., aerobic exercise, resistance exercise, or lifestyle physical activity), exercise duration (e.g., from 20 to 45 min), and the selected populations (e.g., younger vs. middle‐aged adults; Chang, Chi et al, ; Chang, Chu, Wang, Wang et al, ; Chang, Tsai et al, ; Yanagisawa et al, ).…”

“…Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of acute exercise on stimulus‐locked ERP components occurring from 50 to 550 ms after stimulus onset, including N1, N2, P3, and N450 components. These ERP components were specifically selected because previous studies have demonstrated that they are reliably elicited by the Stroop task (Lorist & Jolij, ; Szucs & Soltesz, ), an executive function task that has received increasing research attention in the acute exercise and cognition literature, in part due to the task conditions that allow for the examination of the selective versus general improvement hypotheses of acute exercise (Chang, Chi et al, ; Chang, Chu, Wang, Wang et al, ; Chang, Tsai et al, ; Yanagisawa et al, ).…”