Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hillman, Charles H
• Pontifex, Matthew B
• Castelli, Darla M
• Khan, Naiman A
• Raine, Lauren B
• Scudder, Mark R
• Drollette, Eric S
• Moore, Robert D
• Wu, Chien-Ting
• Kamijo, Keita

Titel

Effects of the FITKids randomized controlled trial on executive control and brain function

Ist Teil von

• Pediatrics (Evanston), 2014-10, Vol.134 (4), p.e1063-e1071

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• To assess the effect of a physical activity (PA) intervention on brain and behavioral indices of executive control in preadolescent children. Two hundred twenty-one children (7-9 years) were randomly assigned to a 9-month afterschool PA program or a wait-list control. In addition to changes in fitness (maximal oxygen consumption), electrical activity in the brain (P3-ERP) and behavioral measures (accuracy, reaction time) of executive control were collected by using tasks that modulated attentional inhibition and cognitive flexibility. Fitness improved more among intervention participants from pretest to posttest compared with the wait-list control (1.3 mL/kg per minute, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.3 to 2.4; d = 0.34 for group difference in pre-to-post change score). Intervention participants exhibited greater improvements from pretest to posttest in inhibition (3.2%, 95% CI: 0.0 to 6.5; d = 0.27) and cognitive flexibility (4.8%, 95% CI: 1.1 to 8.4; d = 0.35 for group difference in pre-to-post change score) compared with control. Only the intervention group increased attentional resources from pretest to posttest during tasks requiring increased inhibition (1.4 µV, 95% CI: 0.3 to 2.6; d = 0.34) and cognitive flexibility (1.5 µV, 95% CI: 0.6 to 2.5; d = 0.43). Finally, improvements in brain function on the inhibition task (r = 0.22) and performance on the flexibility task correlated with intervention attendance (r = 0.24). The intervention enhanced cognitive performance and brain function during tasks requiring greater executive control. These findings demonstrate a causal effect of a PA program on executive control, and provide support for PA for improving childhood cognition and brain health.