Immediate Effects Of Different Exercise Modalities On Inhibitory Control Of Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency College Students:An FNIRS-based Study

With the rapid development of modern communication technology and the continuous improvement of people’s economic level,mobile phones are becoming more and more popular.Mobile phones are being updated rapidly and apart from meeting people’s basic communication needs,other functions such as entertainment,shopping and information browsing are becoming more and more sophisticated.However,this has led to a tendency for people to form a dependency on mobile phones,which can even develop into mobile phone addiction in serious cases.Studies have shown that mobile phone addicted college students suffer from several cognitive and behavioral problems,such as lower academic performance,increased smoking,and sleep disturbances,which may be related to the individual’s low inhibitory control ability.Studies have found that the cortex of inhibitory control neural activity is primarily related to the prefrontal cortex and that low inhibitory control is associated with low activation of the frontopolar area（FPA）and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex（DLPFC）.Exercise is currently a common method used to improve inhibitory control in people with addictions.Previous studies have focused more on the effects of different exercise intensities,durations,or frequencies on inhibitory control,but few studies have directly compared the effects of different exercise modalities on inhibitory control in people with mobile phone addiction.Objectives:To compare changes in error rate and reaction time of the Flanker task in college students with mobile phone addiction tendency before and after different exercise interventions;to compare the effects of different exercise modalities on error rate and reaction time of the Flanker task in college students with mobile phone addiction tendency;to compare the differences in changes in Oxyhemoglobin（Hb O₂）signal concentration in the prefrontal cortex during the execution of the Flanker task with different modalities of exercise,and explore the effects of different exercise modalities on brain activation;and to examine the correlation between changes in Hb O₂ signal concentration and reaction time and error rate during the Flanker task.Methodology:A questionnaire was administered to college students enrolled in rehabilitation programs at the Shanghai College of Health Sciences to screen out those who met the diagnostic criteria for mobile phone addiction tendency scale.45 college students were selected to participate in the experiment and were randomly assigned to aerobic,resistance,and mind-body exercise groups.Inhibitory control was assessed using behavioral data（reaction time and error rate）from the Flanker task,a psychological test paradigm.Functional Near-infrared spectroscopic（f NIRS）imaging was used to detect changes in Hb O₂ concentration in the prefrontal cortex associated with inhibitory control during behavioral tests,and to analyze the correlation between behavioral data and f NIRS data.After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria,valid data from 36 subjects were analyzed.Results:（1）Repeated measures ANOVA with 3（aerobic exercise,resistance exercise,mind-body exercise）×2（pre-test,post-test）×2（consistent task,inconsistent task）showed significant pre-and post-test main effects on the error rate index F（1,33）=4.378,p=0.044,η²=0.117,which had a medium effect size.However,there were no significant differences in pre-and post-test reaction time or error rate within the three groups of subjects（p>0.05）.（2）Before the experiment,there were no significant differences in response time（H=0.299,p=0.861）or error rate（H=1.456,p=0.483）between the three groups.After the intervention,there was a significant difference in response time（H=8.302,p=0.016）but no significant difference in error rate（H=2.643,p=0.267）among the three groups.（3）There were significant differences in activation level between the three groups in the left and right FPA regions,but not in the left and right DLPFC regions.Before the experiment,there was no significant difference in Hb O₂ signal level between the three groups in the left FPA region（H=6.143,p=0.050）,but there was a significant difference after the intervention（H=12.627,p=0.002）.Post-hoc comparisons showed that the mind-body exercise group had a significant difference compared to the resistance exercise group（p=0.009）,and the aerobic exercise group had a significant difference compared to the resistance exercise group（p=0.004）.There was no significant difference between the mind-body exercise group and the aerobic exercise group（p>0.05）.There was also a significant difference in Hb O₂signal difference between the three groups before and after the experiment（H=16.088,p<0.001）,with the mind-body exercise group having a higher level of activation than the resistance exercise group（p<0.001）,but no significant difference between the aerobic exercise group and the resistance exercise group（p>0.05）.In the right FPA region,there was no significant difference in Hb O₂ signal level before（H=4.942,p=0.084）or after the intervention（H=2.523,p=0.283）,but there was a significant difference in Hb O₂ signal difference between the three groups before and after the experiment（H=9.646,p=0.008）.The mind-body exercise group had a higher level of activation compared to the resistance exercise group（p=0.006）,but there was no significant difference between the aerobic exercise group and the resistance exercise group（p>0.05）.（4）Pearson correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between change in Hb O₂ signal level due to the Flanker task and response time（r=0.245,p=0.038）,but no significant correlation between error rate and Hb O₂ signal change.Conclusions:（1）Overall,motor interventions significantly reduced error rates on the Flanker task,but had little effect on reaction time.（2）Mind-body exercise significantly improved inhibitory control and decreased reaction time during the Flanker task performance.（3）Mind-body exercise produced the highest levels of brain activation in FPA followed by aerobic exercise and then resistance exercise.However,the Flanker effect Hb O₂ on DLPFC did not differ significantly before and after the intervention.（4）There was a positive correlation between reaction time in the Flanker task and changes in Hb O₂ signal concentration in the prefrontal cortex,while error rate was not significantly correlated with changes in Hb O₂signal concentration.