ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Effects of acute aerobic exercise on response preparation in a Go/No Go Task in children with ADHD: An ERP study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2014.11.002Get rights and content
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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of acute exercise on reaction time and response preparation during a Go/No Go Task in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods

Nineteen children with ADHD (aged between 8 and 12 years old) undertook a 30-min intervention that consisted of treadmill running or video-watching presented in a counterbalanced order on different days. A Go/No Go Task was administrated after exercise or video-watching.

Results

The results indicated a shorter reaction time and smaller contingent negative variation (CNV) 2 amplitude following exercise relative to the video-watching. For event related potential (ERP) analyses, greater CNV 1 and CNV 2 amplitudes in response to No Go stimuli in comparison to Go stimuli was observed in the video-watching session only.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that acute exercise may benefit children with ADHD by developing appropriate response preparation, particularly in maintaining a stable motor preparatory set prior to performing the given task.

Keywords

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention orienting
Contingent negative variation
Cognition
Physical activity

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Available online 7 January 2015

Peer review under responsibility of Shanghai University of Sport.