Ebisuzaki Brian T, Riemen Nicholas D, Bettencourt Kory M, Gonzalez Lupita M, Bennion Kelly A, Greever Cory J
Department of Kinesiology and Public Health, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
Department of Psychology and Child Development, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
Int J Exerc Sci. 2020 Dec 1;13(5):1650-1666. doi: 10.70252/ETCN8318. eCollection 2020.
Several studies suggest that acute bouts of exercise improve executive function in preadolescent children. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not completely understood. Specifically, no studies have examined the relationship between the stress hormone response to exercise and improvements in executive function in preadolescent children. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a bout of moderate intensity exercise versus rest on working memory (List Sorting Working Memory Task) and selective inhibition/attention (Eriksen flanker task) in preadolescent children, as well as to investigate whether changes in stress hormones (salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase) could explain any differences in performance on these tasks. Twenty-four children completed both a 30-minute moderate intensity bout of treadmill walking and seated rest in a laboratory setting. Tests of executive function and salivary stress hormone analyses were completed before and after each condition. 2x2 Repeated Measures ANOVAs were used to test the effects of time, condition, and time*condition on all executive function and hormonal outcomes. Linear regression models were used to determine if changes in executive function measures were related to changes in stress hormones in the exercise condition. Likely due to methodological limitations, there were no effects of time, condition, nor an interactive effect on working memory, selective inhibition, salivary cortisol, or salivary alpha-amylase. However, there was a trend observed, where the magnitude of the increase in salivary alpha-amylase levels in the exercise condition marginally predicted the improvement in reaction time on the Eriksen flanker task. This suggests that exercise-induced changes in alpha-amylase may underlie improvements in executive function and highlights the need for additional research to more fully understand these relationships in preadolescent children.
多项研究表明，急性运动发作可改善青春期前儿童的执行功能。然而，这些影响背后的机制尚未完全明了。具体而言，尚无研究探讨青春期前儿童运动时应激激素反应与执行功能改善之间的关系。本研究的目的是检验一次中等强度运动与休息对青春期前儿童工作记忆（列表排序工作记忆任务）和选择性抑制/注意力（埃里克森侧翼任务）的影响，并调查应激激素（唾液皮质醇和α-淀粉酶）的变化是否可以解释这些任务表现上的差异。24名儿童在实验室环境中完成了一次30分钟的中等强度跑步机行走和一次静息状态。在每种状态前后均完成了执行功能测试和唾液应激激素分析。使用2×2重复测量方差分析来检验时间、状态以及时间*状态对所有执行功能和激素指标的影响。使用线性回归模型来确定执行功能测量值的变化是否与运动状态下应激激素的变化相关。可能由于方法学上的局限性，时间、状态以及它们对工作记忆、选择性抑制、唾液皮质醇或唾液α-淀粉酶均无交互作用。然而，观察到一种趋势，即运动状态下唾液α-淀粉酶水平升高的幅度略微预测了埃里克森侧翼任务中反应时间的改善。这表明运动引起的α-淀粉酶变化可能是执行功能改善的基础，并凸显了需要进行更多研究以更全面地了解青春期前儿童中的这些关系。
