Effects of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Cognition and Constructs of Decision-Making in Adults With and Without Hypertension

Abstract

Hypertension accelerates brain aging, resulting in cognitive dysfunction with advancing age. Exercise is widely recommended for adults with hypertension to attenuate cognitive dysfunction. Whether acute exercise benefits cognitive function in this at-risk population is unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive function in 30 middle-aged hypertensive (HTN) and 30 age, sex, and body mass index (BMI)-matched non-HTN adults (56 ± 6 years, BMI 28.2 ± 2.9 kg/m2; 32 men). Subjects underwent cognitive testing pre/post 30-min cycling (≈55% peak oxygen consumption). Cognition was assessed using standard metrics of accuracy and reaction time (RT) across memory recognition, 2-back, and Flanker tasks. Behavioral data was further analyzed using drift-diffusion modeling to examine underlying components of decision-making (strength of evidence, caution, bias) and RT (non-decision time). Exercise elicited similar changes in cognitive function in both HTN and non-HTN groups (p > 0.05). Accuracy was unaltered for Flanker and 2-back tasks, while hits and false alarms increased for memory recognition post-exercise (p < 0.05). Modeling results indicated changes in memory hits/false alarms were due to significant changes in stimulus bias post-exercise. RT decreased for Flanker and memory recognition tasks and was driven by reductions in post-exercise non-decision time (p < 0.05). Our data indicate acute exercise resulted in similar, beneficial cognitive responses in both middle-age HTN and non-HTN adults, marked by unaltered task accuracy, and accelerated RT post-exercise. Additionally, drift-diffusion modeling revealed that beneficial acceleration of cognitive processing post-exercise (RT) is driven by changes in non-decision components (encoding/motor response) rather than the decision-making process itself.

Relationship between the Difference in Oxygenated Hemoglobin Concentration Changes in the Left and Right Prefrontal Cortex and Cognitive Function during Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Exercise

“…The improvement in cognitive function as evidenced by the reduction in the response time of the 2-back test before and after exercise was consistent with that observed in other studies [80,81]. Moreover, this study also found that such improvements could last for 20 min after exercise.…”

The acute exercise-cognition interaction: From the catecholamines hypothesis to an interoception model

“…More recent empirical research into the inverted-U effect fails to clarify the picture, with somewhat equivocal results being demonstrated (Chang et al, 2019;Ligeza et al, 2018;Smith et al, 2016). Although the inverted-U effect has limited support, the reviews provide strong evidence for an improvement in cognitive performance from rest to moderate intensity exercise, The findings of studies carried out since these reviews have generally provided more equivocal results with some showing facilitation during and after moderate intensity exercise (Bae and Masaki, 2019;Chang et al, 2019;González-Fernández et al, 2017;Hsieh et al, 2018;Kujach et al, 2018;Labban and Etnier, 2018;Wu et al, 2019) but not others (Chacko et al, 2019;Hill et al, 2019;Lefferts et al, 2019;Winneke et al, 2019). Overall, however, there remains strong support for the conclusion that moderate intensity exercise facilitates performance.…”

The Dose–Response Relationships of Different Dimensions of Physical Activity with Daily Physical Function and Cognitive Function in Chinese Adults with Hypertension: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…This is consistent with the conclusion of this study that high intensity exercise in hypertensive patients had a lower probability of impaired DPF. Additionally, related studies have shown that long-term moderate exercise could significantly improve the memory ability of patients with hypertension [ 28 ], while high intensity exercise did not change the accuracy of executive function and memory tasks in patients with hypertension [ 29 ]. However, high intensity exercise has been shown to be associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular complications and lower compliance, which was not conducive to the development of CF in hypertensive patients [ 30 ].…”