Acute Effects of Moderate Intensity Aerobic Exercise on Cognitive Functions in Young Adult Males

Acute Effects of Physical Fitness and Aerobic Exercise on Cognitive Functions in Young Adult Males

60 healthy male university students will be included in this study. Physical fitness parameters, fluid intelligence, and physical activity level will be measured at baseline. Participants will be randomised to one of two testing schedules, groups will complete either a 30-minutes aerobic exercise session or a resting control condition. Cognitive measures (simple reaction time task, go/nogo task, spatial cueing, n-back task) will be tested before and after the intervention.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cognitive Change
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: aerobic exercise

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 61
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • İzmir, Turkey
    • Izmir University of Economics

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• No known psychiatric, cognitive or physical health problems
• No limiting issue for performing exercise according to Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q+)
• Physical activity level according to International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) < 3000 MET

Exclusion Criteria:

• Discomfort/illness that will interfere with physical activity
• Using any medication or stimulants
• Having limitations for performing exercise according to Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q+)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Exercise Group; 30-minutes moderate-intensity aerobic exercise will be performed according to ACSM guidelines	Other: aerobic exercise; 30-minutes aerobic exercise intervention on the bicycle ergometer. The exercise protocol includes 5 minutes of warm-up, 20 minutes of loading and 5 minutes of cool-down. The intensity of the exercise will be adjusted to be between 46% and 63% of the VO2max calculated according to the exercise programming guide published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the perceived effort level on the Borg scale will be 12-13. Warm-up and cool-down periods will be set to 46% of VO2max and Borg perceived exertion level below 9.
No Intervention: Control Group; 30-minutes video screening while sitting

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in motor inhibition	Go/NoGo Task	Baseline and 30 mins after baseline
Change in working memory capacity	N-Back Task	Baseline and 30 mins after baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in psychomotor rate	Simple reaction time task	Baseline and 30 mins after baseline
Change in visual inspection and attention	Spatial cueing	Baseline and 30 mins after baseline

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)	IPAQ score under 300 indicates low physical activity, 300-3000 indicates moderate physical activity and higher than 3000 is high physical activity.	At baseline
VO2max	Astrand test	At baseline
Raven's Progressive Matrices	Fluid intelligence	At baseline
Muscle strength	back-chest-leg strength	At baseline
Plank test	muscular endurance	At baseline
T-test	agility	At baseline
Body composition	Body Mass Index (BMI)	At baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Izmir University of Economics
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Şermin Tükel Akay, PhD, Izmir University of Economics

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 20, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 3, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 14, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): June 15, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 13, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 12, 2023
• Last Verified: September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: cognition; university students; physical fitness; acute aerobic exercise
• Other Study ID Numbers: 4930-GOA

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No