A Review of the Relation of Aerobic Fitness and Physical Activity to Brain Structure and Function in Children (original) (raw)
Related papers
Childhood aerobic fitness predicts cognitive performance one year later
Journal of Sports Sciences, 2012
Aerobically fit children outperform less fit peers on cognitive control challenges that involve inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. The aim of this study was to determine whether, compared with less fit children, more fit 9-and 10year-old pre-adolescents exhibit superior performance on a modified compatible and incompatible flanker task of cognitive control at the initial time of fitness testing and approximately one year later. We found that more fit children demonstrated increased flanker accuracy at both test sessions, coupled with a superior ability to flexibly allocate strategies during task conditions that required different amounts of cognitive control, relative to less fit children. More fit children also gained a speed benefit at follow-up testing. Structural MRI data were also collected to investigate the relationship between basal ganglia volume and task performance. Bilateral putamen volumes of the dorsal striatum and globus pallidus volumes predicted flanker performance at initial and follow-up testing one year later. The present findings suggest that childhood aerobic fitness and basal ganglia volumes relate to cognitive control at the time of fitness testing and may play a role in cognitive performance in the future. We hope that this research will encourage public health and educational changes that will promote a physically active lifestyle in children.
The effects of physical activity on the brain and cognition during childhood
2013
Abstract: This dissertation investigates the influence of physical activity on the cognitive and brain health of children. It is motivated by experimental studies in rodents and older adults that demonstrate a positive influence of physical activity and aerobic exercise on cognition, brain structure, and brain function. Furthermore, a growing number of cross-sectional studies suggest that physical activity and higher levels of aerobic fitness in children are positively associated with brain structure, brain function, cognition, and school achievement.
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 2014
In this chapter, we review literature that examines the association among physical activity, aerobic fitness, cognition, and the brain in elementary school children (ages 7-10 years). Specifically, physical activity and higher levels of aerobic fitness in children have been found to benefit brain structure, brain function, cognition, and school achievement. For example, higher fit children have larger brain volumes in the basal ganglia and hippocampus, which relate to superior performance on tasks of cognitive control and memory, respectively, when compared to their lower fit peers. Higher fit children also show superior brain function during tasks of cognitive control, better scores on tests of academic achievement, and higher performance on a real-world street crossing task, compared to lower fit and less active children. The cross-sectional findings are strengthened by a few randomized, controlled trials, which demonstrate that children randomly assigned to a physical activity in...
Aerobic Fitness and Neurocognitive Function in Healthy Preadolescent Children
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2005
HILLMAN, C. H., D. M. CASTELLI, and S. M. BUCK. . Purpose: We investigated the relationship between age, aerobic fitness, and cognitive function by comparing high-and low-fit preadolescent children and adults. Method: Twenty-four children (mean age ϭ 9.6 yr) and 27 adults (mean age ϭ 19.3 yr) were grouped according to their fitness (high, low) such that four approximately equal groups were compared. Fitness was assessed using the Fitnessgram test, and cognitive function was measured by neuroelectric and behavioral responses to a stimulus discrimination task. Results: Adults exhibited greater P3 amplitude at Cz and Pz sites, and decreased amplitude at the Oz site compared with children. High-fit children had greater P3 amplitude compared with low-fit children and high-and low-fit adults. Further, adults had faster P3 latency compared with children, and high-fit participants had faster P3 latency compared with low-fit participants at the Oz site. Adults exhibited faster reaction time than children; however, fitness interacted with age such that high-fit children had faster reaction time than low-fit children. Conclusion: These findings suggest that fitness was positively associated with neuroelectric indices of attention and working memory and response speed in children. Fitness was also associated with cognitive processing speed, but these findings were not age-specific. These data indicate that fitness may be related to better cognitive functioning in preadolescents and have implications for increasing cognitive health in children and adults.
The relationship between aerobic fitness and executive control was assessed in 38 higher-and lower-fit children (M age ϭ 9.4 years), grouped according to their performance on a field test of aerobic capacity. Participants performed a flanker task requiring variable amounts of executive control while event-related brain potential responses and task performance were assessed. Results indicated that higher-fit children performed more accurately across conditions of the flanker task and following commission errors when compared to lower-fit children, whereas no group differences were observed for reaction time. Neuroelectric data indicated that P3 amplitude was larger for higher-compared to lower-fit children across conditions of the flanker task, and higher-fit children exhibited reduced error-related negativity amplitude and increased error positivity amplitude compared to lower-fit children. The data suggest that fitness is associated with better cognitive performance on an executive control task through increased cognitive control, resulting in greater allocation of attentional resources during stimulus encoding and a subsequent reduction in conflict during response selection. The findings differ from those observed in adult populations by indicating a general rather than a selective relationship between aerobic fitness and cognition.
Growing evidence suggests that aerobic fitness benefits the brain and cognition during childhood. The present study is the first to explore cortical brain structure of higher fit and lower fit 9-and 10-year-old children, and how aerobic fitness and cortical thickness relate to academic achievement. We demonstrate that higher fit children (>70th percentile VO 2max) showed decreased gray matter thickness in superior frontal cortex, superior temporal areas, and lateral occipital cortex, coupled with better mathematics achievement, compared to lower fit children (<30th percentile VO 2max). Furthermore, cortical gray matter thinning in anterior and superior frontal areas was associated with superior arithmetic performance. Together, these data add to our knowledge of the biological markers of school achievement, particularly mathematics achievement, and raise the possibility that individual differences in aerobic fitness play an important role in cortical gray matter thinning during brain maturation. The establishment of predictors of academic performance is key to helping educators focus on interventions to maximize learning and success across the lifespan.
Physical activity, brain, and cognition
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 2015
In this brief review we summarize the promising effects of physical activity and fitness on brain and cognition in children and older adults. Research in children finds that higher fit and more active preadolescent children show greater hippocampal and basal ganglia volume, greater white matter integrity, elevated and more efficient patterns of brain activity, and superior cognitive performance and scholastic achievement. Higher fit and more physically active older adults show greater hippocampal, prefrontal cortex, and basal ganglia volume, greater functional brain connectivity, greater white matter integrity, more efficient brain activity, and superior executive and memory function. Despite these promising results, more randomized trials are needed to understand heterogeneity in response to physical activity, mechanisms, and translation to public policy.
Association between Physical and Motor Fitness with Cognition in Children
Medicina
Background and objective: There is an increased interest in exploring the association between fitness components with cognitive development in children in recent years. One of the scopes is to find the best exercise prescription to enhance health and cognition. Most of the studies so far have focused on cardiorespiratory fitness with little evidence on other fitness components. The present study aimed to explore the association between physical fitness (PF) and motor fitness (MF) with cognitive performance in children. Methods: Two hundred and six schoolboys (11.0 ± 0.8 y) underwent a battery of tests to measure information processing speed (i.e., simple and choice reaction time) and inhibitory control (i.e., Simon task). PF components (i.e., flexibility, muscular strength, and endurance) and MF components (speed and agility) were measured. Results: Multiple linear regression analysis adjusted for potential confounders (i.e., age, socioeconomic status, %fat and physical activity) re...
Relationship between physical activity, fitness and brain morphology in youth
2017
Riikka Pasanen (2017). Relationship between physical activity, fitness and brain morphology in youth. Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Master's thesis in Science of Sport Coaching and Fitness Testing, 54 pp. Growing evidence has displayed a relationship between physical activity, fitness and cognitive functions, yet the underlying mechanisms and changes in brain morphology explaining this connection are still quite unknown. The current study examined whether physical activity or physical fitness is related with regional brain volume of cortical thickness in youth. The subjects were 35 Finnish adolescents (14.1 ±0.7 years, 23 females & 12 males), a subsample from Active, Fit and Smart (AFIS) – research project. Measurements included objective physical activity measurement with accelerometers, physical fitness test battery and brain imaging procedure with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). From the larger study sample of the AFIS – research project, tw...