title: Auditory and visual reaction times in school going adolescents: effect of structured and unstructured physical training - a randomized control trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cognitive development of adolescents is influenced by their physical activity status. Exercises requiring greater cognitive engagement are likely to have a stronger effect on their executive cognitive functions than simpler exercises.
  
  
  METHODS
  In our randomized, single blinded, parallel group, active controlled trial (CTRI/ 2013/08/003897) the recruited healthy student volunteers, aged 12-17 years (n=439), were allocated into structured physical activity (SPA) and unstructured physical activity (USPA) groups by age and gender stratified block randomization. Physical training for the respective groups was administered by physical education instructors for 2 h per day, 6 times per week, continuously for 6 months. SPA was designed as recommended by the WHO physical activity guidelines for children and young people, while USPA included any indoor or outdoor recreational activity of the participant's choice. This paper describes a part of our findings: comparison of auditory and visual reaction times (ART and VRT), recorded pre- and post-intervention. Data analysis was done by an investigator blinded to the allocation sequence using paired and unpaired t-test for inter- and intra-group comparisons, respectively, by following per-protocol analysis [SPA (n=172) and USPA (n=175)].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both ART and VRT significantly improved in either group but the effect size was more in SPA group vs. USPA group (VRT: 0.87 vs. 0.76; ART: 0.79 vs. 0.65). Thus structuring the physical training in a cognitively engaging manner leads to greater improvements in the perceptual, executive cognitive response phenomenon of growing adolescents.
authors.affiliation: .
authors.forename: Vivek Kumar
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: .
authors.forename: Senthil Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Subramanian
authors.affiliation: .
authors.forename: Vinayathan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Arunachalam
authors.affiliation: .
authors.forename: Krishnakumar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Radhakrishnan
authors.affiliation: .
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramamurthy
authors.affiliation: .
authors.forename: Balasubramanian Sulur
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Ravindran
keywords: cognition; reaction time; structured physical activity