Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States.
Department of Athletics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Physiol Behav. 2023 Jun 1;265:114148. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2023.114148. Epub 2023 Mar 11.
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of cognitive demand during acute exercise on the behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of inhibitory control. In a within- participants design, 30 male participants (age range = 18-27 years) performed 20-min sessions of high cognitive-demand exercise (HE), low cognitive-demand exercise (LE), and an active control (AC) on separate days in a randomized order. A moderate-to-vigorous intensity interval step exercise was used as the exercise intervention. During the exercise periods, the participants were instructed to respond to the target among competing stimuli to impose different cognitive demands with their feet. A modified flanker task was administered to assess inhibitory control before and after the interventions, and electroencephalography was used to derive stimulus-elicited N2 and P3 components. Behavioral data showed that the participants performed significantly shorter reaction time (RT), regardless of congruency and a reduced RT flanker effect following HE and LE compared with the AC condition with large (ds = -0.934 to -1.07) and medium effect sizes (ds = -0.502 to -0.507), respectively. Electrophysiological data revealed that compared with the AC condition, acute HE and LE had facilitative effects on stimuli evaluation, as indicated by significantly shorter N2 latency for congruent trials and P3 latency regardless of congruency with medium effect sizes (ds = -0.507 to -0.777). Compared with the AC condition, only acute HE elicited more efficient neural processes in conditions requiring high inhibitory control demand, as indicated by significantly shorter N2 difference latency, with a medium effect size (d = -0.528). Overall, the findings suggest that acute HE and LE facilitate inhibitory control and the electrophysiological substrates of target evaluation. Acute exercise with higher cognitive demand may be associated with more refined neural processing for tasks demanding greater amounts of inhibitory control.
本研究旨在考察急性运动过程中认知需求对抑制控制的行为和电生理相关性的影响。在一项被试内设计中，30 名男性参与者（年龄范围为 18-27 岁）在不同的日子里，以随机顺序分别进行 20 分钟的高认知需求运动（HE）、低认知需求运动（LE）和主动控制（AC）。采用中等到剧烈强度的间歇台阶运动作为运动干预。在运动期间，参与者被要求用脚对目标做出反应，以应对竞争刺激，从而施加不同的认知需求。在干预前后进行了改良的侧抑制任务来评估抑制控制，同时使用脑电图记录刺激诱发的 N2 和 P3 成分。行为数据显示，无论刺激的一致性如何，参与者的反应时间（RT）都明显缩短，且在进行 HE 和 LE 后，RT 侧抑制效应也明显减小，与 AC 条件相比具有较大（ds=-0.934 至-1.07）和中等（ds=-0.502 至-0.507）效应量。电生理数据显示，与 AC 条件相比，急性 HE 和 LE 对刺激评估具有促进作用，表现为一致条件下 N2 潜伏期显著缩短，且无论一致性如何，P3 潜伏期均显著缩短，具有中等效应量（ds=-0.507 至-0.777）。与 AC 条件相比，只有急性 HE 在需要更高抑制控制需求的条件下诱发了更有效的神经过程，表现为 N2 差异潜伏期显著缩短，具有中等效应量（d=-0.528）。总体而言，研究结果表明，急性 HE 和 LE 促进了抑制控制以及目标评估的电生理基础。具有更高认知需求的急性运动可能与需要更多抑制控制的任务相关的更精细的神经处理有关。
