Guicciardi Marco, Crisafulli Antonio, Doneddu Azzurra, Fadda Daniela, Lecis Romina
Department of Pedagogy, Psychology and Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
Sports Physiology Laboratory, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2019 Aug 8;10:1845. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01845. eCollection 2019.
The metabolic syndrome (MS) has been associated with poor performances in multiple cognitive domains, as processing speed, visuo-spatial abilities, and executive functioning. Exercise is a critical factor for MS people's vulnerability to cognitive dysfunction, because this may be beneficial to reduce cognitive impairment, but limited physical activity and impaired cerebral blood flow in response to exercise have been reported by individuals suffering from MS. Using an attentional interference test, the Bivalent Shape Task (BST), and metaboreflex, we analyzed cognitive performance and cerebral oxygenation (COX) in 13 MS people (five women), and 14 normal age-matched control (CTL, six women). Five different sessions were administered to all participants, each lasting 12 min: control exercise recovery (CER), post-exercise muscle ischemia (PEMI) to activate the metaboreflex, CER + BST, PEMI + BST, and BST alone. During each session, cognitive performance was assessed by means of response times and response accuracy with which participants make the decision and COX was evaluated by near infrared spectroscopy with sensors applied in the forehead. Compared to CTL, MS group performed significantly worse in all sessions ( = 4.18; = 0.05; ES = 0.13): their poorest performance was observed in the BST alone session. Moreover, when BST was added to PEMI, individuals of the CTL group significantly increased their COX compared to baseline (103.46 ± 3.14%), whereas this capacity was impaired in MS people (102.37 ± 2.46%). It was concluded that: (1) MS affects cognitive performance; (2) people with MS were able to enhance COX during exercise, but they impair their COX when an attentional interference task was added.
代谢综合征（MS）与多个认知领域的表现不佳有关，如处理速度、视觉空间能力和执行功能。运动是MS患者易患认知功能障碍的一个关键因素，因为运动可能有助于减轻认知障碍，但据MS患者报告，他们的体力活动有限，且运动时脑血流量受损。我们使用注意力干扰测试、二价形状任务（BST）和代谢反射，分析了13名MS患者（5名女性）和14名年龄匹配的正常对照者（CTL，6名女性）的认知表现和脑氧合（COX）情况。对所有参与者进行了五个不同的阶段，每个阶段持续12分钟：对照运动恢复（CER）、运动后肌肉缺血（PEMI）以激活代谢反射、CER + BST、PEMI + BST和单独的BST。在每个阶段，通过参与者做出决策的反应时间和反应准确性来评估认知表现，并用前额佩戴的传感器通过近红外光谱法评估COX。与CTL相比，MS组在所有阶段的表现均明显较差（ = 4.18； = 0.05；ES = 0.13）：在单独的BST阶段观察到他们的表现最差。此外，当在PEMI中加入BST时，CTL组个体的COX相比基线显著增加（103.46 ± 3.14%），而MS患者的这种能力受损（102.37 ± 2.46%）。研究得出以下结论：（1）MS会影响认知表现；（2）MS患者在运动期间能够增强COX，但当加入注意力干扰任务时，他们的COX会受到损害。
