Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2023 May;33(5):737-753. doi: 10.1111/sms.14311. Epub 2023 Jan 17.
The relationship between physical activity (PA) intensity and executive functions in older adolescents remains poorly understood. This study aimed to examine the associations between PA intensity, volume, attentional control, and working memory and the moderating effects of sex in older adolescents.
We analyzed baseline data from 418 participants (211 females, M = 16.5 ± 0.40 years) from the Burn 2 Learn trial. Adolescents wore GT9X Link accelerometers on a non-dominant wrist for 7 days, 24-h·d . PA intensity was expressed as intensity gradient (IG) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA, Hildebrand cut-points); PA volume was expressed as average acceleration (AvACC). Attentional control was measured with a standard deviation (SDRT) and a coefficient of variation (CVRT) of the reaction time on the incongruent trials of a flanker task. Working memory was expressed as a d prime (a signal discrimination index) on the 2-back task. The moderating effects of sex on the PA-executive functions associations, adjusting for age, BMI z-score, and cardiorespiratory fitness, were tested using multilevel random intercept models.
After controlling for AvACC, sex moderated the relationships between IG and incongruent SDRT (B = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.94) and CVRT (B = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.22, 1.05; ps ≤ 0.002). Only girls with higher IG showed smaller incongruent SDRT and CVRT (Bs ≤ -0.26, ps ≤ 0.01). IG was not related to working memory. AvACC and MVPA were not associated with attentional control or working memory.
Our findings reveal a novel association between higher-intensity PA and superior attentional control among adolescent girls.
体力活动（PA）强度与青少年后期执行功能之间的关系仍知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨 PA 强度、量、注意力控制和工作记忆与青少年后期之间的关系，并探讨性别的调节作用。
我们分析了来自 Burn 2 Learn 试验的 418 名参与者（211 名女性，M = 16.5±0.40 岁）的基线数据。青少年在非优势手腕上佩戴 GT9X Link 加速度计 7 天，每天 24 小时。PA 强度表示为强度梯度（IG）和中等到剧烈 PA（MVPA，Hildebrand 截断点）；PA 量表示为平均加速度（AvACC）。注意力控制通过不一致试验的标准偏差（SDRT）和变异系数（CVRT）来测量。在侧翼任务中。工作记忆表示为 2 回任务的 d 素（信号辨别指数）。通过多层次随机截距模型，测试性别对 PA-执行功能关联的调节作用，同时调整年龄、BMI z 分数和心肺适能。
在控制 AvACC 后，性别调节了 IG 与不一致 SDRT（B=0.53，95%CI：0.12，0.94）和 CVRT（B=0.63，95%CI：0.22，1.05；ps≤0.002）之间的关系。只有 IG 较高的女孩显示出较小的不一致 SDRT 和 CVRT（Bs≤-0.26，ps≤0.01）。IG 与工作记忆无关。AvACC 和 MVPA 与注意力控制或工作记忆无关。
我们的研究结果揭示了较高强度 PA 与青少年女孩注意力控制能力提高之间的新关联。
