title: The relationship between aerobic fitness and neural oscillations during visuo-spatial attention in young adults.
abstract: While the cognitive benefits of aerobic fitness have been widely investigated, current findings in young adults remain unclear. Specifically, little is known about how these effects are reflected in the time-frequency domain. This study thus assessed the relationship between aerobic fitness and neural oscillations during visuo-spatial attention. A between-subjects design that included 20 participants with higher aerobic fitness (age = 21.95 ± 2.24 years; VO2max = 58.98 ± 6.94 ml/kg/min) and 20 age- and gender-matched lower aerobic fitness participants (age = 23.25 ± 2.07 years; VO2max = 35.87 ± 3.41 ml/kg/min) was used to examine the fitness-related differences in performance and neuroelectric indexes during a Posner visuo-spatial attention paradigm. The results demonstrated that high-fitness participants, in comparison with their low-fitness counterparts, showed faster reaction times as well as greater modulation of oscillatory theta and beta power during target processing, regardless of cue types. Moreover, the neurocognitive correlation showed that higher theta power was related to better task performance. Collectively, these findings suggest that aerobic fitness is associated with general enhanced attentional control in relation to visuo-spatial processing, as evidenced through greater motor preparation and in particular the up-regulation of attentional processing in healthy young adults. The present study may contribute to current knowledge by revealing the relationship between aerobic fitness and modulation of brain oscillations.
authors.affiliation: Lab of Cognitive Neurophysiology, Institute of Physical Education, Health and Leisure Studies, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Chun-Hao
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei-Kuang
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.forename: Neil G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Muggleton
authors.forename: Chi-Hung
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Juan
authors.forename: Chia-Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D058256:Brain Waves / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult