Neural Basis of Working Memory Enhancement after Acute Aerobic Exercise: fMRI Study of Preadolescent Children

Frontiers in Psychology

Ai-Guo Chen¹ 

关键词: acute aerobic exercise;    working memory;    N-back;    brain activation patterns;    fMRI;    preadolescent children;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01804

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Working memory lies at the core of cognitive function and plays a crucial role in children’s learning, reasoning, problem solving, and intellectual activity. Behavioral findings have suggested that acute aerobic exercise improves children’s working memory; however, there is still very little knowledge about whether a single session of aerobic exercise can alter working memory’s brain activation patterns, as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Therefore, we investigated the effect of acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on working memory and its brain activation patterns in preadolescent children, and further explored the neural basis of acute aerobic exercise on working memory in these children. We used a within-subjects design with a counterbalanced order. Nine healthy, right-handed children were scanned with a Siemens MAGNETOM Trio 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner while they performed a working memory task (N-back task), following a baseline session and a 30-min, moderate-intensity exercise session. Compared with the baseline session, acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise benefitted performance in the N-back task, increasing brain activities of bilateral parietal cortices, left hippocampus, and the bilateral cerebellum. These data extend the current knowledge by indicating that acute aerobic exercise enhances children’s working memory, and the neural basis may be related to changes in the working memory’s brain activation patterns elicited by acute aerobic exercise.

【 授权许可】

CC BY