Effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on cardiovascular and subjective responses during subsequent cognitive work

The Effects of Acute Resistance Exercise on Memory, Processing Speed, and Mood State After a Cognitive Challenge

ABSTRACT

Venezia, AC, Barney, P, Spagnoli, D, Greco-Hiranaka, C, Piepmeier, AT, Smith, JC, and Weiss, LR. The effects of acute resistance exercise on memory, processing speed, and mood state after a cognitive challenge. J Strength Cond Res 37(9): 1738-1745, 2023-Acute moderate-to-vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise has been shown to improve learning and memory, but the effectiveness of acute high-intensity resistance exercise for improving memory is not fully understood. Like acute aerobic exercise, acute resistance exercise increases arousal and circulating catecholamines, mechanisms suggested to mediate the memory-enhancing effects of acute exercise. Furthermore, although acute exercise has been shown to benefit mood state, it is unknown if high-intensity resistance exercise positively influences mood state after a cognitive challenge. In this within-subjects design, subjects (18- to 25-year-old men) completed an approximately 40-minute session of resistance exercise or seated rest. Immediately after, the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) Code Substitution (CS)-Learning, CS-Immediate Recognition, and CS-Delayed Recognition tasks were completed, followed by the ANAM Mood Scale. There were no significant effects of exercise on recognition memory; however, CS-Learning (attention and processing speed) was better after resistance exercise ( p = 0.03). After the cognitive challenge, restlessness ( p < 0.001), vigor ( p = 0.03), and depression ( p = 0.047) scores were higher after resistance exercise compared with rest; however, after false discovery rate correction, only restlessness remained significantly different between sessions ( q = 0.002), whereas vigor ( q = 0.09) and depression ( q = 0.09) did not. These results suggest that an acute bout of resistance exercise improves attention and processing speed, although it does not improve recognition memory and has mixed effects on mood state in college-aged men.

Blood pressure response to exercise in children and adolescents

Blood pressure changes during exercise are part of the physiological response to physical activity. Exercise stress testing can detect an exaggerated blood pressure response in children and adolescent. It is applied for certain clinical conditions, but is also commonly used as part of the assessment of athletes. The interpretation of blood pressure values in response to exercise during childhood and adolescence requires appropriate reference data. We discuss the available reference values and their limitations with regard to device, exercise protocol and normalization. While the link between an exaggerated blood pressure response and cardiovascular events and mortality has been demonstrated for adults, the situation is less clear for children and adolescents. We discuss the existing evidence and propose that under certain circumstances it might be reasonable to have children and adolescents undergo exercise stress testing as a rather non-invasive procedure to add additional information with regard to their cardiovascular risk profile. Based on the existing data future studies are needed to extend our current knowledge on possible links between the presence of certain clinical conditions, the detectability of an exaggerated blood pressure response during childhood and adolescence and the risk of developing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in later life.

A single session of exercise reduces blood pressure reactivity to stress: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Stressful situations are common in everyday life and disturb homeostasis. So, an exercise session is a strategy to mitigate blood pressure (BP) peaks in response to stress (i.e., BP reactivity), decreasing the cardiovascular risk. This is a systematic review and meta-analysis that aims to verify the effects of a single session of physical exercises on BP reactivity to stress in adults. The searches were performed in digital databases (MEDLINE, LILACS, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, and PsycInfo) and 29 studies were included, totaling 795 individuals (quantitative analysis: k = 25, n = 659). As for exercise characteristics, 21 of the 29 studies focused on aerobic exercises, and 23 studies focused on low to moderate intensities. As for the stress tests, we have them in the following order from the most to the least frequent: stroop color and word test, cold pressor test, arithmetic test, public speaking, handgrip, trier social stress test, and study task. Favorable metanalytic results (standardized mean differences through random-effects approach) for the exercises were found, with attenuated reactivity in systolic BP (pooled effect size = - 0.38 [- 0.49; - 0.27], representing average reductions of 3.7 ± 3.8 mmHg), diastolic BP (pooled effect size = - 0.51 [- 0.70; - 0.33], representing average reductions of 2.9 ± 3.7 mmHg), and mean BP (pooled effect size = - 0.51 [- 0.72; - 0.31], representing average reductions of 4.1 ± 3.3 mmHg). So, acute physical exercise lowers systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure reactivity in response to stressor tasks. However, given the small magnitude of effects, the clinical relevance of this result must be interpreted with caution and be better explored.

Acute Physical Exercise Can Influence the Accuracy of Metacognitive Judgments

Acute exercise generally benefits memory but little research has examined how exercise affects metacognition (knowledge of memory performance). We show that a single bout of exercise can influence metacognition in paired-associate learning. Participants completed 30-min of moderate-intensity exercise before or after studying a series of word pairs (cloud-ivory), and completed cued-recall (cloud-?; Experiments 1 & 2) and recognition memory tests (cloud-? spoon; ivory; drill; choir; Experiment 2). Participants made judgments of learning prior to cued-recall tests (JOLs; predicted likelihood of recalling the second word of each pair when shown the first) and feeling-of-knowing judgments prior to recognition tests (FOK; predicted likelihood of recognizing the second word from four alternatives). Compared to no-exercise control conditions, exercise before encoding enhanced cued-recall in Experiment 1 but not Experiment 2 and did not affect recognition. Exercise after encoding did not influence memory. In conditions where exercise did not benefit memory, it increased JOLs and FOK judgments relative to accuracy (Experiments 1 & 2) and impaired the relative accuracy of JOLs (ability to distinguish remembered from non-remembered items; Experiment 2). Acute exercise seems to signal likely remembering; this has implications for understanding the effects of exercise on metacognition, and for incorporating exercise into study routines.

The effect of acute aerobic exercise on stress related blood pressure responses: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The beneficial impact of regular exercise on cardiovascular health is partly mediated by psychobiological mechanisms. However, the effect of acute exercise on psychobiological responses is unclear. Thus, we performed a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the effect of acute aerobic exercise on blood pressure (BP) responses (the change from baseline to stress) to psychosocial laboratory tasks. Fifteen RCTs met inclusion criteria of which ten demonstrated significant reductions in post-exercise stress related BP responses compared with control (mean effect sizes for systolic and diastolic BP, 0.38 and 0.40). Studies involving greater exercise doses tended to show larger effects, with the minimum dose to show a significant effect being 30 min at 50% VO2max. No other moderators emerged from the examination of participant characteristics, research designs and stressor characteristics. In conclusion, an acute bout of aerobic exercise appears to have a significant impact on the BP response to a psychosocial stressor.

Effects of physical exercise on anxiety, depression, and sensitivity to stress: a unifying theory

Until recently, claims for the psychological benefits of physical exercise have tended to precede supportive evidence. Acutely, emotional effects of exercise remain confusing, both positive and negative effects being reported. Results of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are more consistent in indicating that aerobic exercise training has antidepressant and anxiolytic effects and protects against harmful consequences of stress. Details of each of these effects remain unclear. Antidepressant and anxiolytic effects have been demonstrated most clearly in subclinical disorder, and clinical applications remain to be exploited. Cross-sectional studies link exercise habits to protection from harmful effects of stress on physical and mental health, but causality is not clear. Nevertheless, the pattern of evidence suggests the theory that exercise training recruits a process which confers enduring resilience to stress. This view allows the effects of exercise to be understood in terms of existing psychobiological knowledge, and it can thereby provide the theoretical base that is needed to guide future research in this area. Clinically, exercise training continues to offer clinical psychologists a vehicle for nonspecific therapeutic social and psychological processes. It also offers a specific psychological treatment that may be particularly effective for patients for whom more conventional psychological interventions are less acceptable.

The acute effects of exercise on mood state

This paper documents the recent (1976-1995) literature on the acute mood effects associated with participation in single sessions of exercise. Issues regarding experimental design, "ecological validity' and the operational definition of mood are addressed. Results from these studies suggest that both clinical and nonclinical subjects may benefit acutely from even a single bout of exercise. Finally, possible mechanisms and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Walking, but Not Weight Lifting, Acutely Reduces Systolic Blood Pressure in Older, Sedentary Men and Women

An elderly patient population was used to investigate whether an acute bout of aerobic exercise (AE) would reduce systolic blood pressure (SBP) to a greater extent than would a bout of weight lifting (WL). SBPs were studied in the context of a laboratory Stressor as well as during activities of daily living using ambulatory monitoring devices (AMBPs). Patients participated in a laboratory Stressor and were monitored via AMBP for 8 hr. SBPs were lower for up to 5 hr postexercise for the AE treatment only. In addition, in comparison to no-exercise control data, baseline SBP was lower for the AE group than the WL group prior to the Stressor. Subjects in the AE condition also tended to have lower SBP responses following exercise than patients in the WL group, although these differences did not reach a conventional level of statistical significance. These data provide evidence that single bouts of AE, but not WL, may lower SBP in elderly patients, even for those who have compromised function due to osteoarthritis of the knee.