Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Department of Physical Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2018 Aug 17;8(1):12382. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30067-8.
Acute physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity has been shown to improve cognitive functions in children. However, the empirical evidence associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children is still limited, in particular regarding which specific cognitive functions benefit. This study investigated the effects of an acute bout of physical activity on multiple aspects of executive functions (inhibition, switching, and visual working memory) in children with ADHD. Forty-six children (8-12 years old; 82.6% boys) were randomly assigned to either 15 minutes of acute exergaming (physical activity of moderate intensity) or to a control condition (sedentary). Executive function performance in inhibition, switching and visual working memory were assessed before and after each condition, using a modified version of both the Flanker and the Color Span Backwards Task. The results revealed that participants in the exergaming group performed significantly faster than those in the control group in terms of both inhibition and switching, but there was no significant difference in the accuracy of the two tasks nor in visual working memory performance. These findings suggest that acute physical activity utilizing exergaming has the potential to improve specific aspects of executive functions (reaction times in inhibition and switching) in children with ADHD.
急性中等至剧烈强度的身体活动已被证明可改善儿童的认知功能。然而，与儿童注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）相关的实证证据仍然有限，特别是关于哪些特定认知功能受益。本研究调查了急性身体活动对 ADHD 儿童执行功能（抑制、转换和视觉工作记忆）多个方面的影响。46 名儿童（8-12 岁；82.6%为男孩）被随机分配到 15 分钟的急性运动游戏（中等强度的身体活动）或对照组（久坐不动）。使用 Flanker 和 Color Span Backwards 任务的修改版，在每个条件之前和之后评估抑制、转换和视觉工作记忆的执行功能表现。结果表明，与对照组相比，运动游戏组的参与者在抑制和转换方面的表现明显更快，但在这两个任务的准确性或视觉工作记忆表现方面没有显著差异。这些发现表明，利用运动游戏的急性身体活动有可能改善 ADHD 儿童的特定执行功能方面（抑制和转换的反应时间）。
