Effect Of Acute Aerobic Exercise On Working Memory Of Adolescents

Working memory(WM)is one of the core functions of cognitive function.It plays an important role in many complex cognitive activities.Studies on working memory have shown that the inhibition of irrelevant information in working memory is an important reason for the difference of individual working memory performance.The inhibition of irrelevant information can make rational use of limited memory resources and deal with various tasks more accurately.Working memory is closely related to adolescents' academic performance.It is of great significance to find ways to improve adolescents' working memory.The effect of acute aerobic exercise on working memory is still controversial.The effect of different intensity of aerobic exercise on working memory has not been consistent.The inhibition of different intensity of acute aerobic exercise on irrelevant information of working memory needs more research.Objective:The purpose of this study is to compare the differences of working memory between the students who often take part in sports and those who don't take part in sports so as to confirm the previous research.In Experiment 2,the effects of acute aerobic exercise with different intensities on the working memory of adolescents and the inhibition of irrelevant information on the working memory were investigated.Methods:in Experiment 1,20 students were recruited and divided into regular exercise group and infrequent exercise group.Through the "number letter" task paradigm,the differences of working memory between the two groups were studied,and the effects of inhibition of irrelevant information on working memory were compared.In the second experiment,40 students who did not exercise regularly were recruited and intervened with 30 minutes of acute aerobic exercise to explore the effect of different intensity of acute aerobic exercise on working memory of adolescents,and to further study the effect of inhibition of irrelevant information on working memory.Results:the results of Experiment 1 are consistent with previous studies.Compared with the students who do not often participate in sports,the students who often participate in sports have shorter reaction time(t=-2.89,P=0.010)and higher accuracy(t=3.28,P=0.004)in the working memory task test.The results of Experiment 2 showed that:(1)under the condition of irrelevant information inhibition,there were significant differences between high intensity group and small intensity group(P=0.043),high intensity group and control group(P=0.001),medium intensity group and small intensity group(P=0.008),medium intensity group and control group(P=0.000),and high intensity group and medium intensity group could effectively inhibit irrelevant information.(2)Under the condition of increasing inhibition of irrelevant information,there were significant differences between high intensity group and control group(P=0.007),medium intensity group and control group(P=0.000),and small intensity group and control group(P=0.036).Compared with the control group,the three exercise groups can effectively inhibit irrelevant information.(3)Under the condition of irrelevant information interference,there was significant difference between the high intensity group(P=0.001)and the medium intensity group(P=0.000)before and after the test,but there was no difference between the other groups.(4)Under the dual conditions of irrelevant information interference and suppression,there was significant difference between the high intensity group(P=0.000)and the medium intensity group(P=0.000)in the group before and after the test,while there was no difference in other groups.Conclusion:(1)the working memory performance of the students who often take part in sports is better than that of the students who don't often take part in sports.(2)Acute aerobic exercise can improve students' response time and accuracy.(3)Large and moderate intensity aerobic exercise promotes working memory and there is no significant difference between the two groups.(4)Large and moderate intensity exercise inhibits irrelevant information better.