Physical exercise and executive functions in preadolescent children, adolescents and young adults: A meta-analysis

British Journal of Sports Medicine

Volumn 48, Issue 12, 2014, Pages 973-979

  Verburgh, Lot ^a   Königs, Marsh ^a   Scherder, Erik J A ^a   Oosterlaan, Jaap ^a  

^a VU UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; CHILD; EXECUTIVE FUNCTION; EXERCISE; HUMAN; META ANALYSIS; PHYSIOLOGY; RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL (TOPIC); REGRESSION ANALYSIS; YOUNG ADULT;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; CHILD; EXECUTIVE FUNCTION; EXERCISE; HUMANS; RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS AS TOPIC; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84901639999     PISSN: 03063674     EISSN: 14730480     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2012-091441     Document Type: Review

References (116)

1. Levine JA. Health-chair reform. Diabetes 2010;59:2715-16.
2. Murthy RS, World Health Organization. The world health report 2001:mental health, new understanding, new hope. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization 2001.
3. Laaksonen DE, Lakka HM, Salonen JT, et al. Low levels of leisure-time physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness predict development of the metabolic syndrome. Diabetes Care 2002;25:1612-18.
4. Warburton DER, Nicol CW, Bredin SSD. Health benefits of physical activity: the evidence. CMAJ 2006;174:801-9.
5. Lojovich JM. The relationship between aerobic exercise and cognition: is movement medicinal? J Head Trauma Rehabil 2010;25:184-92.
6. Kamijo K, Hayashi Y, Sakai T, et al. Acute effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive function in older adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2009;64:356-63.
7. Kramer AF, Hahn S, McAuley E, et al. Exercise, aging and cognition: healthy body, healthy mind. In: Fisk AD, Rogers W, eds. Human factors interventions for the health care of older adults. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishing 2001:91-120.
8. Tseng CN, Gau BS, Lou MF. The effectiveness of exercise on improving cognitive function in older people: a systematic review. J Nurs Res 2011;19:119-31.
9. Van Uffelen JGZ, Chinapaw MJM, Van Mechelen W, et al. Walking or vitamin B for cognition in older adults with mild cognitive impairment? A randomized controlled trial. Br J Sports Med 2008;42:344-51.
10. Kashihara K, Maruyama T, Murota M, et al. Positive effects of acute and moderate physical exercise on cognitive function. J Physiol Anthropol 2009;28:155-64.
11. Voss MW, Nagamatsu LS, Liu-Ambrose T, et al. Exercise, brain, and cognition across the life span. J Appl Physiol 2011;111:1505-13.
12. McAuley E, Kramer AF, Colcombe SJ. Cardiovascular fitness and neurocognitive function in older adults: a brief review. Brain Behav Immun 2004;18:214-20.
13. Querido JS, Sheel AW. Regulation of cerebral blood flow during exercise. Sports Med 2007;37:765-82.
14. Chmura J, Nazar K, Kaciuba-Uscilko H. Choice reaction time during graded exercise in relation to blood lactate and plasma catecholamine thresholds. Int J Sports Med 1994;15:172-6.
15. Dishman RK, O'Connor PJ. Lessons in exercise neurobiology: the case of endorphins. Ment Health Phys Act 2009;2:4-9.
16. McMorris T, Collard K, Corbett J, et al. Test of the catecholamines hypothesis for an acute exercise-cognition interaction. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2008;89:106-15.
17. Anish EJ. Exercise and its effects on the central nervous system. Curr Sports Med Rep 2005;4:18-23.
18. Ding YH, Li J, Zhou Y, et al. Cerebral angiogenesis and expression of angiogenic factors in aging rats after exercise. Curr Neurovasc Res 2006;3:15-23.
19. Swain R, Harris A, Wiener E, et al. Prolonged exercise induces angiogenesis and increases cerebral blood volume in primary motor cortex of the rat. Neuroscience 2003;117:1037-46.
20. Dishman RK, Berthoud H, Booth FW, et al. The neurobiology of exercise. Obes Res 2006;14:345-56.
21. Ferris LT, Williams JS, Shen CL. The effect of acute exercise on serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels and cognitive function. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007;39:728-34.
22. Floël A, Ruscheweyh R, Krüger K, et al. Physical activity and memory functions: are neurotrophins and cerebral gray matter volume the missing link? NeuroImage 2010;49:2756-63.
23. Chaddock L, Erickson KI, Prakash RS, et al. Basal ganglia volume is associated with aerobic fitness in preadolescent children. Dev Neurosci 2010;32:249-56.
24. Colcombe S, Kramer AF. Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults a meta-analytic study. Psychol Sci 2003;14:125-30.
25. Ahn S, Fedewa AL. A meta-analysis of the relationship between children's physical activity and mental health. J Pediatr Psychol 2011;36:385-97.
26. Tomporowski PD, Lambourne K, Okumura MS. Physical activity interventions and children's mental function: an introduction and overview. Prev Med 2011;52:S3-9.
27. Best JR. Effects of physical activity on children's executive function: contributions of experimental research on aerobic exercise. Dev Rev 2010;30:331-51.
28. Biddle SJH, Asare M. Physical activity and mental health in children and adolescents: a review of reviews. Br J Sports Med 2011;45:886-95.
29. Tomporowski PD, Davis CL, Miller PH, et al. Exercise and children's intelligence, cognition, and academic achievement. Educ Psychol Rev 2008;20:111-31.
30. Alvarez JA, Emory E. Executive function and the frontal lobes: a meta-analytic review. Neuropsychol Rev 2006;16:17-42.
31. Kramer AF, Humphrey DG, Larish JF, et al. Aging and inhibition: beyond a unitary view of inhibitory processing in attention. Psychol Aging 1994;9:491-512.
32. Pennington BF, Ozonoff S. Executive functions and developmental psychopathology. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 1996;37:51-87.
33. Anderson P. Assessment and development of executive function (EF) during childhood. Child Neuropsychol 2002;8:71-82.
34. Blakemore SJ, Choudhury S. Development of the adolescent brain: implications for executive function and social cognition. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2006;47:296-312.
35. Zelazo PD, Craik FI, Booth L. Executive function across the life span. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2004;115:167-83.
36. Best JR, Miller PH, Jones LL. Executive functions after age 5:changes and correlates. Dev Rev 2009;29:180-200.
37. Welsh MC, Friedman SL, Spieker SJ. Executive functions in developing children: current conceptualizations and questions for the future. In: McCartney K, Phillips D, eds. Blackwell handbook of early childhood development, Malden: Blackwell Publishing 2006:167-87.
38. Giedd JN, Blumenthal J, Jeffries NO, et al. Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study. Nat Neurosci 1999;2:861-2.
39. Paus T. Mapping brain maturation and cognitive development during adolescence. Trends Cogn Sci 2005;9:60-8.
40. Sowell ER, Thompson PM, Leonard CM, et al. Longitudinal mapping of cortical thickness and brain growth in normal children. J Neurosci 2004; 24:8223-31.
41. Anderson V. Assessing executive functions in children: biological, psychological, and developmental considerations. Dev Neurorehabil 2001;4:119-36.
42. Castelli DM, Hillman CH, Buck SM, et al. Physical fitness and academic achievement in third-and fifth-grade students. J Sport Exerc Psychol 2007;29:239-52.
43. Chomitz VR, Slining MM, McGowan RJ, et al. Is there a relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement? Positive results from public school children in the northeastern United States. J Sch Health 2009;79:30-7.
44. Kwak L, Kremers SPJ, Bergman P, et al. Associations between physical activity, fitness, and academic achievement. J Pediatr 2007;155:914-18.
45. Buck SM, Hillman CH, Castelli DM. The relation of aerobic fitness to stroop task performance in preadolescent children. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2008;40:166-72.
46. Hillman CH, Buck SM, Themanson JR, et al. Aerobic fitness and cognitive development: event-related brain potential and task performance indices of executive control in preadolescent children. Dev Psychol 2009;45:114-29.
47. Fisher A, Boyle J, Paton J, et al. Effects of a physical education intervention on cognitive function in young children: randomized controlled pilot study. BMC Pediatr 2011;11:97.
48. Kamijo K, Pontifex MB, O'Leary KC, et al. The effects of an afterschool physical activity program on working memory in preadolescent children. Dev Sci 2011;14:1046-58.
49. Stroth S, Hille K, Spitzer M, et al. Aerobic endurance exercise benefits memory and affect in young adults. Neuropsychol Rehabil 2009;19:223-43.
50. Stroup DF, Berlin JA, Morton SC, et al. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology. JAMA 2000;283:2008-12.
51. Lebel C, Walker L, Leemans, et al. Microstructural maturation of the human brain from childhood to adulthood. Neuroimage 2008;40:1044-55.
52. Whitford TJ, Rennie CJ, Grieve SM, et al. Brain maturation in adolescence: concurrent changes in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. Hum Brain Mapp 2007;28:228-37.
53. Westlye LT, Walhovd KB, Dale AM, et al. Life-span changes of the human brain white matter: diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and volumetry. Cereb Cortex 2010;20:2055-68.
54. Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, et al. The PRISMA Group. Preferred reporting items for systematic REVIEWS and meta-analyses: the PRISMA Statement, 2009.
55. Davis CL, Tomporowski PD, Boyle CA, et al. Effects of aerobic exercise on children's cognitive functioning: a randomized controlled trial. Res Q Exerc Sport 2007;78:510-19.
56. Davis CL, Tomporowski PD, McDowell JE, et al. Exercise improves executive function and achievement and alters brain activation in overweight children: a randomized, controlled trial. Health Psychol 2011;30:91-8.
57. Tomporowski PD, Davis CL, Lambourne K, et al. Task switching in overweight children: effects of acute exercise and age. J Sport Exerc Psychol 2008;30:497-511.
58. Naglieri JA, Das J. Cognitive Assessment System. Itacasa; Illinois: Riverside Publishing 1997.
59. Sternberg S. High-speed scanning in human memory. Science 1966;153:652-4.
60. Eriksen BA, Eriksen CW. Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task. Att Percept Psychophys 1974;16:143-9.
61. Brickenkamp R, Cubero N Seisdedos. D2, test de atención: Manual. Madrid, Spain: TEA Ediciones, 2002.
62. Stroop JR. The basis of Ligon's theory. Am J Psychol 1935;47:499-504.
63. Conway ARA, Kane MJ, Bunting MF, et al. Working memory span tasks: a methodological review and user's guide. Psychon Bull Rev 2005;12:769-86.
64. Logan GD, Cowan WB. On the ability to inhibit thought and action: a theory of an act of control. Psychol Rev 1984;91:295-327.
65. Coles K, Tomporowski PD. Effects of acute exercise on executive processing, short-term and long-term memory. J Sports Sci 2008;26:333-44.
66. Kamijo K, Nishihira Y, Higashiura T, et al. The interactive effect of exercise intensity and task difficulty on human cognitive processing. Int J Psychophysiol 2007;65:114-21.
67. Sanabria D, Morales E, Luque A, et al. Effects of acute aerobic exercise on exogenous spatial attention. Psychol Sport Exerc 2011;12:570-4.
68. Shea B, O'Connell D, et al. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses, Ottawa, ON: The Ottawa Health Research Institute. http://www.ohri.ca/programs/clinical- epidemiology/oxford.htm\ (accessed 29 Sep 2011)
69. Comprehensive Meta-analysis Version 2 (computer program). Englewood, NJ: Biostat, 2005.
70. SPSS Statistics for Windows (computer program). Version 17.0.0. Chicago, IL: IBM, 2008.
71. Hedges LV, Olkin I, Statistiker M. Statistical methods for meta-analysis. Orlando, FL: Academic Press 1985.
72. Cochran WG. The combination of estimates from different experiments. Biometrics 1954;10:101-29.
73. Gliner JA, Morgan GA, Harmon RJ. Meta-analysis: formulation and interpretation. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2003;42:1376-9.
74. Egger M, Smith GD, Phillips AN. Meta-analysis: principles and procedures. BMJ 1997;315:1533-7.
75. DerSimonian R, Laird N. Meta-analysis in clinical trials. Control Clin Trials 1986;7:177-88.
76. Cohen J. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral science. 2nd edn. Hillsdale, NY: Erlbaum, 1988.
77. Luskin RC. Abusus non tollit usum: standardized coefficients, correlations, and R 2s. Am J Pol Sci 1991;35:1032-46.
78. Rosenthal R. Writing meta-analytic reviews. Psychol Bull 1995;118:183-92.
79. Egger M, Smith GD, Schneider M, et al. Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. BMJ 1997;315:629-34.
80. Ellemberg D, St-Louis-Deschênes M. The effect of acute physical exercise on cognitive function during development. Psychol Sport Exerc 2010;11:122-6.
81. Hillman CH, Pontifex MB, Raine LB, et al. The effect of acute treadmill walking on cognitive control and academic achievement in overweight preadolescent children. Neuroscience 2009;159:1044-54.
82. Stroth S, Kubesch S, Dieterle K, et al. Physical fitness, but not acute exercise modulates event-related potential indices for executive control in healthy adolescents. Brain Res 2009;1269:114-24.
83. Budde H, Voelcker-Rehage C, Pietraßyk-Kendziorra S, et al. Acute coordinative exercise improves attentional performance in adolescents. Neurosci Lett 2008;441:219-23.
84. Audiffren M, Tomporowski PD, Zagrodnik J. Acute aerobic exercise and information processing: modulation of executive control in a random number generation task. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2009;132:85-95.
85. Lambourne K, Audiffren M, Tomporowski P. Effects of acute exercise on sensory and executive processing tasks. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010;42:1396-402.
86. O'Leary KC, Pontifex MB, Scudder MR, et al. The effects of single bouts of aerobic exercise, exergaming, and videogame play on cognitive control. Clin Neurophysiol 2011;122:1518-25.
87. Yanagisawa H, Dan I, Tsuzuki D, et al. Acute moderate exercise elicits increased dorsolateral prefrontal activation and improves cognitive performance with Stroop test. Neuroimage 2010;50:1702-10.
88. Sibley BA, Beilock SL. Exercise and working memory: an individual differences investigation. J Sport Exerc Psychol 2007;29:783-91.
89. Tomporowski PD, Ganio MS. Short-term effects of aerobic exercise on executive processing, memory, and emotional reactivity. J Sport Exerc Psychol 2006;4:57-72.
90. Chang YK, Tsai CL, Hung TM, et al. Effects of acute exercise on executive function: a study with a tower of london task. J Sport Exerc Psychol 2011;33:847-65.
91. Sibley BA, Etnier JL, Le Masurier GC. Effects of an acute bout of exercise on cognitive aspects of Stroop performance. J Sport Exerc Psychol 2006;28:285-99.
92. Joyce J, Graydon J, McMorris T, et al. The time course effect of moderate intensity exercise on response execution and response inhibition. Brain Cogn 2009;71:14-19.
93. Mostofsky SH, Simmonds DJ. Response inhibition and response selection: two sides of the same coin. J Cogn Neurosci 2008;20:751-61.
94. Scheres A, Oosterlaan J, Geurts H, et al. Executive functioning in boys with ADHD: primarily an inhibition deficit? Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2004;19:569-94.
95. Maddigan B, Hodgson P. The effects of massage therapy & exercise therapy on children/adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Can Child Adolesc Psychiatr Rev 2003;12:40-3.
96. Tantillo M, Kesick CM, Hynd GW, et al. The effects of exercise on children with attention-deficit hyperactivity. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2002;34:203-12.
97. Hiura M, Mizuno T, Fujimoto T. Cerebral oxygenation in the frontal lobe cortex during incremental exercise tests: the regional changes influenced by volitional exhaustion. Adv Exp Med Biol 2010;662:257-63.
98. Seifert T, Secher NH. Sympathetic influence on cerebral blood flow and metabolism during exercise in humans. Prog Neurobiol 2011;95:406-26.
99. Madsen KS, Baaré WFC, Vestergaard M, et al. Response inhibition is associated with white matter microstructure in children. Neuropsychologia 2010;48:854-62.
100. Oosterman JM, Vogels RLC, Van Harten B, et al. The role of white matter hyperintensities and medial temporal lobe atrophy in age-related executive dysfunctioning. Brain Cogn 2008;68:128-33.
101. Marks BL, Madden DJ, Bucur B, et al. Role of aerobic fitness and aging on cerebral white matter integrity. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2007;1097:171-4.
102. Colcombe SJ, Erickson KI, Scalf PE, et al. Aerobic exercise training increases brain volume in aging humans. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2006;61:1166-70.
103. Smith E, Hay P, Campbell L, et al. A review of the association between obesity and cognitive function across the lifespan: implications for novel approaches to prevention and treatment. Obes Rev 2011;12:740-55.
104. Selim M, Jones R, Novak P, et al. The effects of body mass index on cerebral blood flow velocity. Clin Auton Res 2008;18:331-8.
105. Willeumier KC, Taylor DV, Amen DG. Elevated BMI is associated with decreased blood flow in the prefrontal cortex using SPECT imaging in healthy adults. Obesity 2011;19:1095-7.
106. Li Y, Dai Q, Jackson JC, et al. Overweight Is associated with decreased cognitive functioning among school-age children and adolescents. Obesity 2008;16:1809-15.
107. Shore SM, Sachs ML, Lidicker JR, et al. Decreased Scholastic Achievement in Overweight Middle School Students. Obesity 2008;16:1535-8.
108. Zelazo PD, Müller U. Executive function in typical and atypical development. In: Goswami U, ed. The Wiley-blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development. Oxford, UK: Blackwell 2010:574-603.
109. Stern Y. What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2002;8:448-60.
110. Lautenschlager NT, Almeida OP, Flicker L, et al. Can physical activity improve the mental health of older adults? Ann Gen Psychiatry 2004;3:12.
111. Smith PJ, Blumenthal JA, Hoffman BM, et al. Aerobic exercise and neurocognitive performance: a meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials. Psychosom Med 2010;72:239-52.
112. Davranche K, McMorris T. Specific effects of acute moderate exercise on cognitive control. Brain Cogn 2009;69:565-70.
113. Anderson VA, Anderson P, Northam E, et al. Relationships between cognitive and behavioral measures of executive function in children with brain disease. Child Neuropsychol 2002;8:231-40.
114. Brock LL, Rimm-Kaufman SE, Nathanson L, et al. The contributions of 'hot'and 'cool'executive function to children's academic achievement, learning-related behaviors, and engagement in kindergarten. Early Childhood Res Q 2009;24:337-49.
115. Willoughby MT, Kupersmidt JB, Voegler-Lee ME. Is preschool executive function causally related to academic achievement? Child Neuropsychol 2012;18:79-91.
116. Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, et al. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999-2004. JAMA 2006;295:1549-5.