Abstract
This study examined whether individual differences in aerobic fitness are associated with differences in activation of cognitive control brain networks in preadolescent children. As expected, children performed worse on a measure of cognitive control compared with a group of young adults. However, individual differences in aerobic fitness were associated with cognitive control performance among children. Lower-fit children had disproportionate performance cost in accuracy with increasing task difficulty, relative to higher-fit children. Brain activation was compared between performance-matched groups of lower- and higher-fit children. Fitness groups differed in brain activity for regions associated with response execution and inhibition, task set maintenance, and top-down regulation. Overall, differing activation patterns coupled with different patterns of brain-behavior correlations suggest an important role of aerobic fitness in modulating task strategy and the efficiency of neural networks that implement cognitive control in preadolescent children.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 166-176 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Neuroscience |
Volume | 199 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 29 2011 |
Keywords
- Aerobic fitness
- Development
- Executive control
- Exercise
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
- Physical activity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience