NCT03592238

Sympathetic Nervous System Mediation of Acute Exercise Effects on Childhood Brain and Cognition

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 297 (actual)
• Sponsor: Northeastern University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 9 Years – 10 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Today's children have become increasingly inactive and unfit, with \>50% of children not meeting the recommended 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Previous research has suggested that acute aerobic exercise of moderate intensity was associated with improved cognition manifested by improved performance and increased P3 amplitude, a neuroelectric indicator that reflects the amount of attentional allocation, in tasks requiring cognitive control. While minimal evidence exists to support potential mechanisms underlying the transient effects of exercise on brain and cognition, research suggests that phasic changes in the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) (as measured by salivary alpha amylase (sAA)) system are a potential mechanism for explaining the acute effect of exercise on brain and cognition. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to examine the mechanisms linking acute aerobic exercise to improved cognitive control as well as the underlying neuroelectrical activities in children, using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs). We hope to gain a better understanding of the role of acute exercise and cognitive and brain health. The results from this study will help identify mechanisms linking acute exercise to enhanced cognitive performance in children. Our hypothesis is that exercise-induced phasic increases in sympathetic nervous system activity will mediate the effect of a single bout of exercise on brain function, cognition, and standardized achievement test performance.

Conditions

• Exercise
• Cognition

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Aerobic Exercise Intervention	The protocol will include a 25-min bout of exercise at an intensity of 75% HRmax, such that participants will engage in a 1-min warm up and a 1-min cool down, with the majority of time (i.e., 23-min) spent exercising at 75% of HRmax.
OTHER	Trier Social Stress Test for Children	Participants will be asked to imagine that they are in a new class with 20 other students, and that their teacher has asked them to stand in front of the class and introduce themselves. The mental arithmetic task will entail asking children to serially subtract the number 5 from a larger number as quickly as possible.
OTHER	Seated Rest	Children will be asked to sit quietly or read a book of their choosing.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-02-10
• Primary completion: 2024-06-30
• Completion: 2024-06-30
• First posted: 2018-07-19
• Last updated: 2025-06-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States