The effects of acute high‐intensity interval exercise on the temporal dynamics of working memory and contralateral delay activity

The present investigation examined the acute effects of high‐intensity interval exercise (HIIE) on temporal changes in behavioral and neuroelectrical indices of working memory. Young adults (n = 22) performed a visual working memory change detection task of equiprobable 2‐ to 5‐dot set sizes while contralateral delay activity (CDA) and N2pc ERP components were assessed at three consecutive time periods (40‐min, 54‐min, and 68‐min) following three separate counterbalanced 9‐min sessions of seated rest, HIIE‐aerobic (treadmill intervals of moderate‐ and high‐intensity run/walk periods) and HIIE‐aerobic/resistance (intervals of rest and body‐weight calisthenics). Behavior results revealed greater 4‐dot accuracy for HIIE‐aerobic/resistance compared to seated rest only at 40‐min, maintenance of 5‐dot accuracy across time for HIIE‐aerobic compared to HIIE‐aerobic/resistance and seated rest, and greater temporal stability in overall accuracy performance (i.e., inter‐class correlation between temporally adjacent assessments) for both HIIE conditions compared to seated rest. CDA and N2pc results revealed no change in amplitude across time and between HIIE‐aerobic, HIIE‐aerobic/resistance, and seated rest. However, greater temporal stability in CDA amplitude was observed for HIIE‐aerobic compared to seated rest. These findings suggest that short bouts of HIIE may serve as an effective modality for improvements and temporal stabilization in behavior with some evidence for stabilization of neuroelectrical indices of working memory capacity. Together, these data broadly suggest that short acute bouts of exercise may facilitate improvements in underlying mental operations responsible for temporal stability in cognitive and neurocognitive function.