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- The influence of an acute bout of exercise on cognitive performance among healthy adults
Clinical Trial
The influence of an acute bout of exercise on cognitive performance among healthy adults
Cognitive performance improves immediately following an acute bout of exercise for about 15 minutes among young and older adults. It is thought that the increase in blood flow, brain related neurotrophins (e.g., brain derived neurotrophic factor and insulin-like growth factor), as well as catecholamine levels may be underlying mechanisms driving this acute improvement in cognitive performance. Additionally, 24 hours after an acute bout of exercise, memory performance has also shown to improve in young and older adults, likely due to the consolidation phase of sleep. Obese individuals tend to show impaired motor and processing speed, semantic, episodic, and working memory, and, most consistently, executive function relative to normal weight individuals. Furthermore, obese individuals show less cerebral blood flow. Therefore, it is unclear whether an acute bout of exercise would elicit acute improvements in cognitive performance among obese adults compared to healthy weighted young adults. It is also unclear whether an acute bout of exercise will provoke improvements in cognitive performance 24 hours later in obese adults relative to healthy weighted adults. Therefore, the purpose of our study is to: 1) determine the effects of acute exercise on cognitive performance in obese adults compared to healthy weighted adults, and 2) determine whether possible changes in cognitive performance are sustained 24 hours later following sleep compared to healthy weighted adults.
Eligibility Criteria
- You may be eligible if you: Are you between the ages of 18-59 years, and 2) a BMI of 18.5 to <25 (healthy) Are you interested in participating in a study involving an acute bout of exercise and physical performance measures? Exclusion from the study will consist of: 1) those with any health-related issues were a doctor has issued no or limited exercises; 2) a score <26 points on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment; 3) medication that manipulates heart rate or sleep; 4) chronic pain in the chest, head, other body parts; 5) pregnancy; and 6) reporting ?yes? to any item on the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire.