A single bout of moderate intensity exercise improves cognitive flexibility: evidence from task-switching
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
A single bout of moderate intensity exercise improves cognitive flexibility: evidence from task‑switching Diksha Shukla1 · Zain Al‑Shamil1 · Glen Belfry1,2 · Matthew Heath1,2 Received: 27 November 2019 / Accepted: 16 July 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Executive function entails the core components of response inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility. An accumulating literature has shown that a single bout of exercise improves the response inhibition and working memory components of executive function; however, limited work has examined a putative exercise-related improvement to cognitive flexibility. To address this limitation, Experiment 1 entailed a 20-min session of moderate intensity aerobic exercise (via cycle ergometer), and pre- and post-exercise cognitive flexibility was examined via a task-switching paradigm involving alternating pro- and antisaccades (AABB: A = prosaccade, B = antisaccade). In Experiment 2, participants sat on the cycle ergometer without exercising (i.e., rest break) and the same AABB paradigm was examined pre- and post-break. We used an AABB pro- and antisaccade paradigm because previous work has shown that a prosaccade preceded by an antisaccade exhibits a reliable—and large magnitude—increase in reaction time, whereas the converse switch does not (i.e., the unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost). Experiment 1 showed a unidirectional prosaccade switch-cost pre-exercise (p = .012)—but not post-exercise (p = .30), and a two one-sided t test indicated that the latter comparison was within an equivalence boundary (p
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