The Effect Of Acute Exercise On Executive Control Functions Of Students

Participation in physical activity and exercise has been associated with the reduction of a number of physical (for example, cardiovascular disease and obesity) and mental (for example, depression, dementia and anxiety) disorders across the modern time. A growing number of studies have reported the beneficial influence of physical activity and chronic exercise on executive control functions which contained preventing dementia on old adults and improving cognition on children. In terms of an acute bout of exercise, it was discussed that whether it has the positive effect on executive constituted of simple cognitive task and complex cognitive task. Further more, many factors can interfere the exercise-cognition relationship which contains the factors of acute exercise such as intensity, frequency, type and paradigm of cognitive task and the age of subjects. Consequently, the purpose of this investigation was to assess the varying of an acute exercise on executive control functions for senior PE students.Thirty-seven healthy young adults were recruited from Physical Education courses at the Inner Mongolia Normal University. They were males and between 19 and 25 years of age. All the subjects attend the mixed design that is 2 (task-kind:congruent/incongruent)×2 (session:pre/post)×2 (conflict context:high-conflict/low-control, low-conflict/high-control)×4(intensity:low/moderate/high/rest). Among these variables task-kind and session were within-subject factors and the others were between-subject factors. The subjects were randomly distributed into group on four levels. The subjects at three intensities of exercise sat on a cycle ergometer with fixed speed pedaling 5 minutes while monitored the heart rate and recorded Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE).However, the subjects at rest group rested 15 minutes instead of performing exercise. All subjects performed a Stroop task and choice reaction time task before and after acute exercise and collected reaction time and correct rate by computer.When the experiments were finished, the collected data of subjects was integrated and analyzed by E-prime and SPSS. The main results conclusions of this study are summarized as follows:First, the color-object Stroop task is in accordance with classic Stroop task, which could sensitively reflect adaptive changes in executive control functions.Second, the color-object Stroop effect could be generally observed in context of high-conflict/low-control condition that is the reaction time of incongruent trials was longer compared with congruent trials. However, in low-conflict/high-control condition, the Stroop interference was weaker and the difference between incongruent and congruent trials was not significant.Third, the performance of the Stroop task of the subjects in exercise groups was significant better than rest group, that is to say exercise can improve the executive control functions.Forth, in high-conflict/low-control condition, low intensity,moderate intensity and high intensity exercise caused significant improvement of Stroop effect as measured by RT, especially the effect size of moderate intensity is most.Fifth, in low-conflict/high-control condition, only the Stroop performance was significantly better in high intensity group than rest group. It is indicated that the effect of high intensity on cognition was the most.Lastly, in different intensities, there is difference between simple task and complex task because the effect of acute exercise on choice reaction time was not significant compared to color-object Stroop effect. These findings suggested that an acute bout of exercise could improve the executive control functions reflecting Stroop interference as measured by RT.In conclusion, these findings suggest that color-object Stroop task could sensitively reflect adaptive changes in executive control functions. Furthermore, in current study, it was observed that the improved executive control performance reflected by color-object Stroop task after an acute bout of aerobic exercise, and the acute exercise of difference intensities showed various degree of effect. The moderate and higher intensity is more beneficial to cognition as far as PE students are concerned.