Anzeneder, Sofia; Zehnder, Cäcilia; Martin-Niedecken, Anna Lisa; Schmidt, Mirko; Benzing, Valentin (2023). Acute exercise and children's cognitive functioning: What is the optimal dose of cognitive challenge? Psychology of sport and exercise, 66(102404), p. 102404. Elsevier Science 10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102404
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Acute bouts of exercise have the potential to benefit children's cognition. Inconsistent evidence on the role of qualitative exercise task characteristics calls for further investigation of the cognitive challenge level in exercise. Thus, the study aim was to investigate which "dose" of cognitive challenge in acute exercise benefits children's cognition, also exploring the moderating role of individual characteristics. In a within-subject experimental design, 103 children (Mage = 11.1, SD = 0.9, 48% female) participated weekly in one of three 15-min exergames followed by an Attention Network task. Exergame sessions were designed to keep physical intensity constant (65% HRmax) and to have different cognitive challenge levels (low, mid, high; adapted to the ongoing individual performance). ANOVAs performed on variables that reflect the individual functioning of attention networks revealed a significant effect of cognitive challenge on executive control efficiency (reaction time performances; p = .014, ƞ2p = .08), with better performances after the high-challenge condition compared to lower ones (ps < .015), whereas alerting and orienting were unaffected by cognitive challenge (ps > .05). ANOVAs performed on variables that reflect the interactive functioning of attention networks revealed that biological sex moderated cognitive challenge effects. For males only, the cognitive challenge level influenced the interactive functioning of executive control and orienting networks (p = .004; ƞ2p = .07). Results suggest that an individualized and adaptive cognitively high-challenging bout of exercise is more beneficial to children's executive control than less challenging ones. For males, the cognitive challenge in an acute bout seems beneficial to maintain executive control efficiency also when spatial attention resources cannot be validly allocated in advance. Results are interpreted referring to the cognitive stimulation hypothesis and arousal theory.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW) |
UniBE Contributor: |
Anzeneder, Sofia, Zehnder, Cäcilia, Schmidt, Mirko, Benzing, Valentin Johannes |
Subjects: |
700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment |
ISSN: |
1469-0292 |
Publisher: |
Elsevier Science |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Pubmed Import |
Date Deposited: |
05 Sep 2023 14:05 |
Last Modified: |
29 Oct 2023 02:22 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102404 |
PubMed ID: |
37665845 |
Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Attention network task Cognitive engagement Executive function Exergaming Physical activity |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/186034 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/186034 |
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