Exercise improves behavioral, neurocognitive, and scholastic performance in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of a single bout of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on preadolescent children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using objective measures of attention, brain neurophysiology, and academic performance.

Study design: Using a within-participants design, task performance and event-related brain potentials were assessed while participants performed an attentional-control task following a bout of exercise or seated reading during 2 separate, counterbalanced sessions.

Results: Following a single 20-minute bout of exercise, both children with ADHD and healthy match control children exhibited greater response accuracy and stimulus-related processing, with the children with ADHD also exhibiting selective enhancements in regulatory processes, compared with after a similar duration of seated reading. In addition, greater performance in the areas of reading and arithmetic were observed following exercise in both groups.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that single bouts of moderately intense aerobic exercise may have positive implications for aspects of neurocognitive function and inhibitory control in children with ADHD.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1

Mean (± SE) response accuracy (A) and median (± SE) post error reaction time (B) collapsed across compatibility and congruency conditions for each session by group. Mean (± SE) standard score for each session on each of the three WRAT3 academic performance tests collapsed across ADHD and Healthy Match-Control groups (C).

Figure 2

Topographic-plots of P3 amplitude collapsed across group (A), the stimulus-locked grand-average waveform from the PZ electrode site (B), the response-locked grand average waveform for error (C), and match-correct trials (D) for each group (solid lines indicate ADHD group) and session (black lines indicate Post Exercise) with all graphs collapsed across compatibility and congruency conditions.