Yangüez Marc, Bediou Benoit, Hillman Charles H, Bavelier Daphne, Chanal Julien
Department of Psychology and Department of Physical Therapy, Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston MA.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2021 Aug 1;53(8):1656-1665. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002630.
The aim of this study was to investigate the indirect effects of cardiorespiratory fitness on scholastic performance through executive functions. More precisely, we examined the contribution of the different domains of executive functions, and whether this relationship was specific to certain school topics.
Children 8-12 yr old completed nine cognitive tests and the multistage fitness test. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to analyze the role of different domains of executive functions (inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and a common factor to all tasks) in the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and school grades in three domains: (i) mathematics; (ii) grammar, spelling, and vocabulary; and (iii) text comprehension and expression. Covariate analyses included age and socioeconomic status.
The results of this study showed that an indirect effect of the various domains of executive functions explained, in part, the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and (i) mathematics (β = 0.12, SE = 0.03, P < 0.001), and between cardiorespiratory fitness and (ii) grammar, spelling, and vocabulary (β = 0.12, SE = 0.03, P < 0.001). No relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and (iii) text comprehension and expression was observed. Although executive functions correlated with school grades, cognitive flexibility drove the indirect effect when all executive function domains were simultaneously taken into account.
These results show the role that executive functions play in understanding the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and scholastic performance. Importantly, not all executive function domains contributed equally because cognitive flexibility played a leading role in this wide age range. Furthermore, the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and scholastic performance was strongest for mathematics and for low-level language topics but nonsignificant for higher-level language topics, providing a more modulated view of the effect of cardiorespiratory fitness on language.
本研究旨在探讨心肺适能通过执行功能对学业成绩产生的间接影响。更确切地说，我们研究了执行功能不同领域的作用，以及这种关系是否特定于某些学校科目。
8至12岁的儿童完成了九项认知测试和多级体能测试。采用结构方程建模技术分析执行功能不同领域（抑制、工作记忆、认知灵活性以及所有任务的一个共同因素）在心肺适能与三个领域学业成绩之间关系中的作用：（i）数学；（ii）语法、拼写和词汇；（iii）文本理解与表达。协变量分析包括年龄和社会经济地位。
本研究结果表明，执行功能各领域的间接效应部分解释了心肺适能与（i）数学之间的关系（β = 0.12，标准误 = 0.03，P < 0.001），以及心肺适能与（ii）语法、拼写和词汇之间的关系（β = 0.12，标准误 = 0.03，P < 0.001）。未观察到心肺适能与（iii）文本理解与表达之间的关系。尽管执行功能与学业成绩相关，但当同时考虑所有执行功能领域时，认知灵活性驱动了间接效应。
这些结果表明了执行功能在理解心肺适能与学业成绩之间关系中所起的作用。重要的是，并非所有执行功能领域都有同等贡献，因为在这个较宽的年龄范围内认知灵活性发挥了主导作用。此外，心肺适能与学业成绩之间的关系在数学和低水平语言科目中最强，而在高水平语言科目中不显著，这为心肺适能对语言的影响提供了一种更具调节性的观点。
