Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, executive functions and prefrontal brain oxygenation in children: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Despite accumulating evidence that regular exercise improves executive functioning, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms have rarely been investigated. The present study aimed to compare cognitive performance as well as task-specific concentration changes in oxygenated haemoglobin in the prefrontal cortex between children with higher and lower moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Physical activity was measured over 7 consecutive days using actigraphy. Afterwards, participants (N = 50) completed verbal fluency tests (VFTs) and mental arithmetic (MA) for the assessment of cognitive flexibility and working memory capacity. During the tasks, changes of oxygenated haemoglobin were measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Using average MVPA of 11-year-old children as cut-point, the sample was divided into children with lower and higher MVPA. Analyses of variance revealed no significant differences in correct and false responses on the cognitive tests between groups. With regard to oxygenated haemoglobin, no group differences were found for concentration changes in response to the cognitive tasks. In conclusion, VFTs and MA increased children's activation in prefrontal regions associated with cognitive flexibility and working memory, respectively. However, these executive functions and cortical activation were not different between children with lower and higher MVPA.