Fitness-Dependent Effect of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Executive Function

Cognitive gains are reported to be induced by acute aerobic exercise, but the role of fitness in the effect of acute aerobic exercise on executive function remains unknown. Therefore, we aimed to examine the effect of fitness on acute exercise-induced changes in executive function from neural mechanism approach. Twenty-four female college students were assigned to high-fitness or low-fitness groups based on their cardiovascular fitness level, and then underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing N-back tasks before and after 30 min of acute exercise. The behavioral results revealed significant interaction effects of group by time in the 0-back and 1-back tasks, but not in the 2-back task. The accuracy was significantly higher in the high-fitness group than in the low-fitness group before exercise in the 1-back and 2-back tasks. At the neural level, significant interaction effects of group by time were observed in all tasks. The 0-back and 1-back tasks activated the right cerebellum while the 2-back task activated subcortical regions. Our findings suggest that fitness moderates the effect of aerobic exercise on cognitive function, and provide the first neural evidence to support the influence of fitness on exercise-induced cognitive performance.

[1]  Yu-Kai Chang,et al.  Obesity, Cardiovascular Fitness, and Inhibition Function: An Electrophysiological Study , 2016, Front. Psychol..

[2]  J. Etnier,et al.  The Effects of Acute Exercise on Memory and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). , 2016, Journal of sport & exercise psychology.

[3]  Paige E. Scalf,et al.  Cardiovascular fitness, cortical plasticity, and aging. , 2004, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[4]  Jonathan D. Cohen,et al.  The Expected Value of Control: An Integrative Theory of Anterior Cingulate Cortex Function , 2013, Neuron.

[5]  E. Courchesne,et al.  A new role for the cerebellum in cognitive operations. , 1992, Behavioral neuroscience.

[6]  Brigitte Röder,et al.  Beneficial effects of physical exercise on neuroplasticity and cognition , 2013, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[7]  Sterling C. Johnson,et al.  Cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with brain structure, cognition, and mood in a middle-aged cohort at risk for Alzheimer’s disease , 2014, Brain Imaging and Behavior.

[8]  M. Rapoport,et al.  The role of the cerebellum in cognition and behavior: a selective review. , 2000, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[9]  A. Kramer,et al.  Fitness Effects on the Cognitive Function of Older Adults , 2003, Psychological science.

[10]  Philip Greenland,et al.  Prevalence and cardiovascular disease correlates of low cardiorespiratory fitness in adolescents and adults. , 2005, JAMA.

[11]  S. Brand,et al.  Acute effects of moderate aerobic exercise on specific aspects of executive function in different age and fitness groups: A meta-analysis. , 2016, Psychophysiology.

[12]  A. Diamond.  Executive functions. , 2014, Handbook of clinical neurology.

[13]  James M. Hagberg,et al.  Hippocampal and Cerebral Blood Flow after Exercise Cessation in Master Athletes , 2016, Front. Aging Neurosci..

[14]  Lawrence Arthur Golding,et al.  YMCA fitness testing and assessment manual , 2000 .

[15]  Julia A. Licholai,et al.  Dopamine D1 Receptor–Positive Neurons in the Lateral Nucleus of the Cerebellum Contribute to Cognitive Behavior , 2018, Biological Psychiatry.

[16]  A. Kramer,et al.  Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition , 2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[17]  A. Kramer,et al.  Acute Exercise and Neurocognitive Development in Preadolescents and Young Adults: An ERP Study , 2017, Neural plasticity.

[18]  L. Bosquet,et al.  Fitness level moderates executive control disruption during exercise regardless of age. , 2014, Journal of sport & exercise psychology.

[19]  Chenglin Zhou,et al.  Effect of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive performance: Role of cardiovascular fitness , 2014 .

[20]  Chung-Ju Huang,et al.  Neuroelectric and Behavioral Effects of Acute Exercise on Task Switching in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder , 2016, Front. Psychol..

[21]  Charles H Hillman,et al.  The relation of aerobic fitness to stroop task performance in preadolescent children. , 2008, Medicine and science in sports and exercise.

[22]  M. Botvinick,et al.  Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. , 2001, Psychological review.

[23]  Larry W. Swanson.  The Motor System , 2011 .

[24]  Xi-Nian Zuo,et al.  Can Taichi Reshape the Brain? A Brain Morphometry Study , 2013, PloS one.

[25]  Gao-Xia Wei,et al.  Effect of acute exercise and cardiovascular fitness on cognitive function: an event-related cortical desynchronization study. , 2015, Psychophysiology.

[26]  Xi-Nian Zuo,et al.  Tai Chi Chuan optimizes the functional organization of the intrinsic human brain architecture in older adults , 2014, Front. Aging Neurosci..

[27]  Jeremy D Schmahmann,et al.  Dysmetria of thought: clinical consequences of cerebellar dysfunction on cognition and affect , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[28]  R. Schmidt,et al.  Fitness and cognition in the elderly , 2016, Neurology.

[29]  F. Middleton,et al.  Diurnal oscillations in human salivary microRNA and microbial transcription: Implications for human health and disease , 2018, PloS one.

[30]  Arthur F Kramer,et al.  Fitness Effects on the Cognitive Function of Older Adults: A Meta-Analytic Study—Revisited , 2018, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[31]  B. MacIntosh,et al.  Effects of acute aerobic exercise on neural correlates of attention and inhibition in adolescents with bipolar disorder , 2016, Translational psychiatry.

[32]  P. Strick,et al.  Basal ganglia and cerebellar loops: motor and cognitive circuits , 2000, Brain Research Reviews.

[33]  O. Steward.  Motor System I , 2000 .

[34]  M. Kiefer,et al.  The effects of cardiorespiratory fitness and acute aerobic exercise on executive functioning and EEG entropy in adolescents , 2015, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[35]  Chun-Hao Wang,et al.  Effects of acute aerobic exercise on a task‐switching protocol and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor concentrations in young adults with different levels of cardiorespiratory fitness , 2016, Experimental physiology.

[36]  Liam Kilmartin,et al.  The interactive effects of physical fitness and acute aerobic exercise on electrophysiological coherence and cognitive performance in adolescents , 2013, Experimental Brain Research.

[37]  J. Lindsay,et al.  Physical activity and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly persons. , 2001, Archives of neurology.

[38]  Gao-Xia Wei,et al.  Acute Aerobic Exercise Increases Cortical Activity during Working Memory: A Functional MRI Study in Female College Students , 2014, PloS one.

[39]  Shintaro Funahashi,et al.  Neuronal mechanisms of executive control by the prefrontal cortex , 2001, Neuroscience Research.

[40]  A. F. Kramer,et al.  The effect of acute treadmill walking on cognitive control and academic achievement in preadolescent children , 2009, Neuroscience.

[41]  K. Yaffe,et al.  A Longitudinal Study of Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Cognitive Function in Healthy Older Adults , 2003, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[42]  X. Zuo,et al.  Mind-Body Practice Changes Fractional Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuations in Intrinsic Control Networks , 2017, Front. Psychol..