Acute Effects Of One-bout High Intensity Interval Training And Moderate Intensity Continue Training On Executive Function Among Young Adults

Objective:High intensity interval training（HIIT）has beneficial effects on improving aerobic fitness,improving glucose lipid metabolism and reducing body fat.However,the effects of HIIT on cognitive function remain unclear.Therefore,the purpose of the study was to examine the effects of one-bout HIIT and moderate intensity continue training（MICT）on executive function performance,and the functional near infrared spectroscopy（fNIRS）approach was used to measure the cortical activity.Methods:In a cross-over study design,26 young adults（mean age=21.9±2.3 years）,including 17 males and 9 females,were randomly assigned to the following three experimental conditions:sit（SIT）,HIIT,and MICT.Executive functions were assessed by the Stroop Color Word Test.Cortical activity was monitored using a multi-channel fNIRS system.Repeated measure analysis of variance was used to test the performance of Stroop Color Word Test and the changes of oxygenated hemoglobin（oxy-Hb）in41 channels.Results:The accuracy of Stroop task after HIIT（HIIT:96.43±5.44%;SIT:94.88±6.71%;MICT:94.51±7.66%;HIIT vs SIT:P=0.042;HIIT vs MICT:P=0.028）was significantly higher than that after SIT and MICT.There were no significant differences on the Stroop interference effect and reaction time among SIT,HIIT and MICT（P>0.05）.The fNIRS results showed that the interactions of experimental conditions（SIT,HIIT and MICT）and the Stroop task conditions（congruent,neutral and incongruent）in channel 10（Broca area）(F_（4,22）=3.682,P=0.019,η²p=0.401)and channel 24（Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex）(F_（4,22）=2.940,P=0.044,η²p=0.348)were significant.Moreover,after HIIT condition,the concentration of oxy-Hb associated with the congruent in channels 10 were increased compared with MICT（0.80±0.82 a.u vs.0.19±1.03 a.u,P=0.004,FDR-corrected）.The main effects and interaction effects of data from other channels were no significant difference on the oxy-Hb.Conclusion:The findings indicated that compared with MICT,one-bout HIIT improves the accuracy of Stroop tasks,and cortical activation of prefrontal cortex was increased,which suggesting that one-bout HIIT may facilitate cognitive process.