Acute effect of vigorous aerobic exercise on the inhibitory control in adolescents

OBJECTIVE: To assess the acute effect of vigorous aerobic exercise on the inhibitory control in adolescents. METHODS: Controlled, randomized study with crossover design. Twenty pubertal individuals underwent two 30-minute sessions: (1) aerobic exercise session performed between 65% and 75% of heart rate reserve, divided into 5 min of warm-up, 20 min at the target intensity and 5 min of cool down; and (2) control session watching a cartoon. Before and after the sessions, the computerized Stroop test-Testinpacs™ was applied to evaluate the inhibitory control. Reaction time (ms) and errors (n) were recorded. RESULTS: The control session reaction time showed no significant difference. On the other hand, the reaction time of the exercise session decreased after the intervention (p<0.001). The number of errors made at the exercise session were lower than in the control session (p=0.011). Additionally, there was a positive association between reaction time (Δ) of the exercise session and age (r (2)=0.404, p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Vigorous aerobic exercise seems to promote acute improvement in the inhibitory control in adolescents. The effect of exercise on the inhibitory control performance was associated with age, showing that it was reduced at older age ranges.