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Habitual exercise affects inhibitory processing in young and middle age men and women
Citation
Lennox, K and Miller, RK and Martin, FH, Habitual exercise affects inhibitory processing in young and middle age men and women, International Journal of Psychophysiology, 146 pp. 73-84. ISSN 0167-8760 (2019) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
DOI: doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.08.014
Abstract
Inhibitory processing is an aspect of cognitive control susceptible to cognitive decline due to aging. Engaging in
habitual exercise could attenuate these declines in middle age. In the present study, the event-related potential
(ERP) activity of 40 middle age adults (21 females) and 42 young adults (24 females) was recorded with
electroencephalography (EEG) as participants completed two cognitive tasks that elicit inhibitory processing,
one indexing interference control (i.e., the Flanker Task), and the other response inhibition (i.e., the Stop-Signal
task). Congruent arrays elicited significantly earlier peaks in P3b activity compared to incongruent arrays in the
Flanker task for non-exercisers and young habitual exercisers. For middle age habitual exercisers, this difference
was of much smaller magnitude, and non-significant. This finding suggests that the timing of interference
control, as indexed by P3b latency, was similar in the congruent and congruent conditions for middle age adults
who engaged in regular exercise. On the Stop-Signal task, the P3b activity of habitual exercisers was larger and
peaked earlier than that of non-exercisers, indicating that ERP activity signalling response inhibition was enhanced in young and middle age adult regular exercisers. Sex differences were also observed in peak P3b activity
on the Flanker task, results which suggest the relationship between regular exercise and interference control
differs between men and women. The findings of this study suggest that it is important to consider individual
differences, for example sex, when examining the effectiveness of exercise interventions targeting cognitive
decline.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | habitual exercise, inhibition, middle age, P3b, N2 |
| Research Division: | Psychology |
| Research Group: | Biological psychology |
| Research Field: | Behavioural neuroscience |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in psychology |
| UTAS Author: | Lennox, K (Ms Kate Lennox) |
| ID Code: | 136772 |
| Year Published: | 2019 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 4 |
| Deposited By: | Psychology |
| Deposited On: | 2020-01-17 |
| Last Modified: | 2020-04-24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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