Zhan Zhuxuan, Ai Jingyi, Ren Feifei, Li Lin, Chu Chien-Heng, Chang Yu-Kai
Key Laboratory of Adolescent Health Assessment and Exercise Intervention of Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
College of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 10;11:1198. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01198. eCollection 2020.
Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and age have been positively associated with children's executive function; however, few studies have simultaneously assessed the associations between both variables and different aspects of executive function among preadolescent children. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the simultaneous influence of CRF and age on three aspects of executive function. Preadolescent children's ( = 338) CRF levels were estimated based on the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test and then grouped into two age groups (Young Group: 9-10 years old and Old Group: 11-12 years old). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted for the 2-back task, the Flanker task, and the Local-Global task to assess the influence of CRF and age on working memory, inhibitory control, and shifting, respectively. Preadolescent children with greater CRF levels were associated with higher response accuracy during the 2-back task and shorter response time across congruent and incongruent conditions of the Flanker task, whereas older children showed generally superior cognitive performance. Notably, only the Old Group's CRF was positively correlated with the accuracy in the switching condition of the Local-Global task. These findings suggest that CRF or age was generally associated with better performances in working memory and inhibitory control aspects of executive function. Furthermore, the positive influence of CRF on shifting may be modulated by developed cortical maturation.
心肺适能（CRF）与年龄和儿童的执行功能呈正相关；然而，很少有研究同时评估这两个变量与青春期前儿童执行功能不同方面之间的关联。因此，本研究的目的是评估CRF和年龄对执行功能三个方面的同时影响。根据渐进式有氧心血管耐力跑（PACER）测试估算青春期前儿童（=338）的CRF水平，然后将其分为两个年龄组（年轻组：9-10岁和年长组：11-12岁）。对2-back任务、侧翼任务和局部-全局任务进行分层多元回归分析，以分别评估CRF和年龄对工作记忆、抑制控制和转换的影响。CRF水平较高的青春期前儿童在2-back任务中的反应准确性较高，在侧翼任务的一致和不一致条件下反应时间较短，而年龄较大的儿童总体上表现出更好的认知能力。值得注意的是，只有年长组的CRF与局部-全局任务转换条件下的准确性呈正相关。这些发现表明，CRF或年龄通常与执行功能的工作记忆和抑制控制方面的更好表现相关。此外，CRF对转换的积极影响可能会受到发育成熟的皮质成熟的调节。
