Alesi Marianna, Giordano Giulia, Giaccone Marcello, Basile Michele, Costa Sebastiano, Bianco Antonino
Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
Psychologist, Independent Researcher, 90036 Misilmeri (PA), Italy.
J Funct Morphol Kinesiol. 2020 Apr 23;5(2):26. doi: 10.3390/jfmk5020026.
Physical activity (PA) during childhood plays an important role in brain development. This role is played in both the structural domain, prefrontal cortex area, and in the functional domain, involving the higher cognitive functions, including the executive functions (EF). Working memory (WM), inhibition, and switching as fundamental EF were investigated in an Italian children sample before and after four months of an Enriched Sports Activities-Program (ESA-Program). EFs were assessed at pre-test and post-test using, respectively, the digit span test, the color word Stroop test, and the trail making test derived from Millisecond Software. The Italian sample was composed of 141 children aged 8.54 years. The intervention group (IG) was composed of 61 children and the control group (CG) of 80 children. Significant differences in WM ( < 0.05) were found in the IG following the ESA-Program intervention. Children's performance improved both in forward digit span (FDS1 mean difference = 0.26; = 0.04; FDS2 mean difference = 0.21; = 0.01) and backward digit span (BDS2 mean difference = 0.14; = 0.02). No significant improvements were observed for inhibition and switching processes ( > 0.05). Since this finding suggests that brain functioning is sensitive to lifestyle factors, such as PA, an essential goal for ESA-Program is to emphasize the importance of PA to enhance cognitive skills in childhood and prevent sedentary life.
儿童时期的身体活动（PA）在大脑发育中起着重要作用。这一作用体现在结构领域（前额叶皮质区域）和功能领域，涉及包括执行功能（EF）在内的高级认知功能。在一项意大利儿童样本中，对丰富体育活动计划（ESA计划）进行四个月前后，研究了作为基本执行功能的工作记忆（WM）、抑制和转换。分别使用数字广度测试、颜色词斯特鲁普测试以及来自毫秒软件的连线测试，在预测试和后测试时评估执行功能。意大利样本由141名8.54岁的儿童组成。干预组（IG）由61名儿童组成，对照组（CG）由80名儿童组成。在ESA计划干预后，干预组在工作记忆方面发现了显著差异（<0.05）。儿童在顺背数字广度（FDS1平均差异 = 0.26； = 0.04；FDS2平均差异 = 0.21； = 0.01）和倒背数字广度（BDS2平均差异 = 0.14； = 0.02）方面的表现均有所改善。在抑制和转换过程中未观察到显著改善（>0.05）。由于这一发现表明大脑功能对诸如身体活动等生活方式因素敏感，ESA计划的一个重要目标是强调身体活动对提高儿童认知技能和预防久坐生活的重要性。
