Elsevier

Neuroscience

Volume 159, Issue 3, 31 March 2009, Pages 1044-1054
Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience
The effect of acute treadmill walking on cognitive control and academic achievement in preadolescent children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.01.057Get rights and content

Abstract

The effect of an acute bout of moderate treadmill walking on behavioral and neuroelectric indexes of the cognitive control of attention and applied aspects of cognition involved in school-based academic performance were assessed. A within-subjects design included 20 preadolescent participants (age=9.5±0.5 years; eight female) to assess exercise-induced changes in performance during a modified flanker task and the Wide Range Achievement Test 3. The resting session consisted of cognitive testing followed by a cardiorespiratory fitness assessment to determine aerobic fitness. The exercise session consisted of 20 min of walking on a motor-driven treadmill at 60% of estimated maximum heart rate followed by cognitive testing once heart rate returned to within 10% of pre-exercise levels. Results indicated an improvement in response accuracy, larger P3 amplitude, and better performance on the academic achievement test following aerobic exercise relative to the resting session. Collectively, these findings indicate that single, acute bouts of moderately-intense aerobic exercise (i.e. walking) may improve the cognitive control of attention in preadolescent children, and further support the use of moderate acute exercise as a contributing factor for increasing attention and academic performance. These data suggest that single bouts of exercise affect specific underlying processes that support cognitive health and may be necessary for effective functioning across the lifespan.

Section snippets

Participants

Table 1 provides the demographic and fitness data for all participants. Twenty right-handed preadolescent children from the east–central Illinois region were recruited to serve as participants. All participants provided written assent and their legal guardians provided written informed consent in accordance with the Institutional Review Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Prior to testing, legal guardians completed a health history and demographics questionnaire, reported

Session Order

Preliminary analyses were performed to test whether the Session Order, which was counterbalanced across participants, had an effect on any of the dependent variables. Findings revealed no significant main effect or interaction involving Session Order for any variable, F's(1, 18)≤2.2, P≥0.15, η2≤0.11. Thus, all further analyses were collapsed across Session Order.

Achievement test performance

Analyses conducted on the three subtests of the WRAT3 indicated significantly better performance for reading comprehension following

Discussion

Overall, the findings revealed that a single, acute bout of moderately-intense aerobic exercise facilitated children's cognitive performance and influenced ERP components elicited in a task requiring cognitive control. Specifically, following acute exercise, children exhibited increases in response accuracy and P3 amplitude during incongruent trials. Acute exercise also benefited performance on an academic achievement test of reading. Accordingly, these data indicate that acute exercise might

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (RO 1 HD060385) to Charles Hillman and the National Institute on Aging (RO 1 AG25667 and RO 1 AG25302) to Arthur Kramer.

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