Aerobic fitness and the attentional blink in preadolescent children.
OBJECTIVE
Given the growing concern that children in today's industrialized and technologically advanced society are becoming more sedentary and less fit, a greater understanding of the extent to which aerobic fitness relates to brain health and cognition during development is of increasing importance. Accordingly, this study sought to use neuroelectric and behavioral measures during an attentional blink task to examine the temporal dynamics of attention as a function of children's aerobic fitness.


METHODS
Using a cross-sectional design, response accuracy and event-related brain potentials were assessed in preadolescent children with different levels of aerobic fitness.


RESULTS
Results indicated that higher fit children exhibited greater task performance and better attentional resources distribution, as measured via the P3 component, compared to lower fit children.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that aerobic fitness may benefit aspects of cognitive health that involve temporal dynamics of attentional processes during preadolescent maturation.
Department of Exercise Science, Schreiner University.
Chien-Ting
CT
Wu
Charles H
CH
Hillman
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D054518:Attentional Blink / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires