A Study On The Relationship Between Aerobic Fitness, Brain Gray Matter Volume And Executive Control In Male College Students

Background:Contemporary university students are living in the final stage of growth and development.Whether their growth and development is normal or not and whether their body is well-developed or bad.Whether their healthy life style are formed or not.These factors will have an important impact on their physical quality,psychological quality,career choice and employment and future life.A total of 8 large-scale surveys on student physique and health were carried out in China.The data show that the physical quality of undergraduate trend continues to decline.At the same time,with the increase of overweight and obesity rate,the cardiopulmonary of the students also decreases year by year.Through investigation,Foreigner relevant studies have proved that there is a correlation between cardiopulmonary function and cognitive performance.By definition,cardiopulmonary fitness is aerobic fitness.At present,there are few studies on the correlation between aerobic fitness and cognitive function in China,but with government paid attention on brain experiments funded function,all of brain science is in full swing.University students as the backbone of social development in future.Our country need they maintaining a good physical fitness contributes to the smooth progress of study and work.Executive control is defined as a high-level cognitive process that coordinates and controls various basic cognitive processes while completing complex cognitive tasks.Studies have shown that maintaining a high level of aerobic fitness contributes to development of executive control,but its neurophysiological mechanism still needs to be explored in detail.Objective:The main direction is to explore the relationship between aerobic fitness,brain gray matter volume and executive control of male university students.At the same time,enrich the theory of motor and cognitive relationship.This study provides references for future longitudinal studies.Methods:ln this study,73 healthy male university students who met the criteria were selected from certain Yangzhou university.Maximum oxygen uptake data were collected by cycle ergometer.Flanker task is used to collect execution control data.The gray matter volume in the subjects was extracted by using structural magnetic resonance imaging(sMRI)and voxel-based morphometry(VBM).Finally,the differences of gray matter volume in male university students were evaluated by analyzing the appeal data.Results:(1)There was a significant negative correlation between the aerobic fitness level of male university students and the score of executive control(r=-0.252*,P=0.031<0.05);There is significant positive correlation between the aerobic capacity of male undergraduates and the Right medial superior frontal gyrus(SFGmed.R)volume(r=0.247*,P=0.035<0.05).There was no significant correlation between the scores of executive control and the volume of gray matter.(2)By multiple mediating model tests,the Left middle temporal gyrus(MTG.L)and Left cerebellum(Cerebellum.L)gray matter volumes in the regional gray matter played intermediary roles in the model.Among them,the contribution rate of gray matter volume in MTG.L region in the whole model is 9.23%.The contribution rate of grey matter volume in the region of cerebellum L is 7.35%.Conclusion:(1)Male university students the higher the aerobic fitness level is.the better the performance of executive control;Male university students the higher the aerobic fitness level is,the larger the gray matter volumein the right medial superior frontal gyrus.(2)Left medial temporal gyrus volume and left cerebellar gray matter volume of male university students play an intermediary role in the influence of aerobic fitness on executive control.In conclusion,aerobic fitness affects executive control through left medial temporal gyrus volume and left cerebellum volume.