Influence of physical activity and acute exercise on cognitive performance and saliva testosterone in preadolescent school children

Niemann, Claudia; Wegner, Mirko; Voelcker-Rehage, Claudia; Holzweg, Martin; Arafat, Ayman M.; Budde, Henning (2013). Influence of physical activity and acute exercise on cognitive performance and saliva testosterone in preadolescent school children. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 6(3), pp. 197-204. Elsevier Science 10.1016/j.mhpa.2013.08.002

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We investigated whether the chronic physical activity participation had an impact on the acute effects of a short bout of 12 min of intensive physical activity on cognitive performance and testosterone concentration in primary school students (n = 42, mean age = 9.69, SD = .44; experimental group (EG), n = 27; control group (CG), n = 15). Furthermore, we looked for associations between testosterone concentration and cognitive performance. After the intervention, participants of the EG showed better cognitive performances as compared to the CG. We further observed a significant group (EG, CG) test (pre, post) activity level (high, low) interaction. Post hoc pairwise comparisons revealed that after acute physical activity the testosterone concentration was diminished only in habitually low active children. The results indicate that intensive physical activity only attenuates the reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in habitually low active preadolescents, but had a beneficial effect on cognitive performance for all participants independent of their physical activity level and testosterone.

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