Lingling Hu
1,2
Qiqi Shen
1
Hengchan Yin
1*
Lei Cui
1*The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1346896
This article is part of the Research Topic Psychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume IV View all 18 articles
Time-course Effects of Exercise Intervention on Executive Function in Adolescents with Obesity
Provisionally accepted- 1 Beijing Normal University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 2 China Conservatory, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
Objective: This study was to investigate the developmental characteristics of executive function (EF) in obese adolescents and the time-course effects of a 14-week exercise intervention combining aerobic exercise and resistance training on EF in this population. Methods: The experimental group of 28 obese junior high school students participated in the exercise intervention combining aerobic exercise and resistance training, while the control group of 24 healthy weight junior high school students engaged in the regular recess exercise. EF, including inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, was assessed one week prior to the exercise intervention and at 12 and 14 weeks post-intervention. Changes in EF sub-functions in both groups at different time points during the exercise intervention were analyzed. Results: The findings revealed that obese junior high school students exhibited lower levels of inhibition (p=0.003, Cohen's d=0.848) and cognitive flexibility (p=0.013, Cohen's d=0.706) compared to their healthy weight peers. The exercise intervention combining aerobic exercise and resistance training led to significant improvements in EF among obese junior high school students, with inhibition (p<0.01, Cohen's d=0.713; p=0.003, Cohen's d=0.683) and cognitive flexibility (p=0.001, Cohen's d=0.797; p<0.01, Cohen's d=0.890) showing significant improvement at 12 and 14 weeks post-intervention, and working memory demonstrating significant improvement at 14 weeks (p=0.004, Cohen's d=0.710). No significant differences were observed in EF over time in healthy weight junior high school students. Conclusion, Obese adolescents had impaired EF, as evidenced by low levels of the inhibition and cognitive flexibility compared to healthy weight adolescents. The exercise intervention combining aerobic exercise and resistance training had a positive effect on EF of obese adolescents. The time-course effects of the intervention on improvements in inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility varied with intervention duration in obese adolescents, with significant changes in inhibition and cognitive flexibility observed at 12 weeks and significant changes in working memory at 14 weeks.
Keywords: Obese adolescents, executive functions, Exercise, inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility
Received: 30 Nov 2023; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Hu, Shen, Yin and Cui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Hengchan Yin, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, Beijing Municipality, China
Lei Cui, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, Beijing Municipality, China
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