The present study examined the effects of a 9-month randomized control physical activity intervention aimed at improving cardiorespiratory fitness on changes in working memory performance in preadolescent children relative to a waitlist control group. Participants performed a modified Sternberg task, which manipulated working memory demands based on encoding set sizes, while task performance and the contingent negative variation (CNV) event-related brain potential were measured. Analyses revealed that the physical activity intervention led to increases in cardiorespiratory fitness and improved Sternberg task performance. Further, the beneficial effects of the physical activity intervention were greater for a task condition requiring greater working memory demands. In addition, the intervention group exhibited larger initial CNV at the frontal electrode site, relative to the waitlist group at post-test; an effect not observed during the pre-test. These results indicate that increases in cardiorespiratory fitness are associated with improvements in the cognitive control of working memory in preadolescent children.

The minimum number of trials necessary to accurately characterize the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) across the life span was investigated using samples of preadolescent children, college-age young adults, and older adults. Event-related potentials and task performance were subsequently measured during a modified flanker task. Response-locked averages were created using sequentially increasing errors of commission in blocks of two. Findings indicated that across all age cohorts ERN and Pe were not significantly different relative to the withinparticipants grand average after six trials. Further, results indicated that the ERN and Pe exhibited excellent internal reliability in preadolescent children and young adults after six trials, but older adults required eight trials to reach similar reliability. These data indicate that the ERN and Pe may be accurately quantified with as few as six to eight commission error trials across the life span. Descriptors: Cognition, Children, Normal Volunteers, Aged, EEG/ERPWith a growing number of investigations assessing neuroelectric concomitants of error-related brain activity, it is increasingly necessary to quantify the number of trials needed to obtain stable and reliable event-related potential (ERP) components. During the past decade the minimum number of trials necessary for response-locked ERP components has been fiercely debated, with averages ranging from 5 to 300 trials (Olvet & Hajcak, 2009). Recently, Olvet and Hajcak have elucidated this issue by systematically assessing the stability of the error-related responselocked ERP components in young adults, indicating that stability occurs following six to eight error trials. Still unanswered, however, is the extent to which these findings generalize across the life span. That is, given the high level of intraindividual variability present during development and aging (Hultsch & MacDonald,

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Objective To test whether behavioral weight loss (BWL) intervention decreases headaches in women with comorbid migraine and overweight/obesity. Methods This randomized, single-blind trial allocated women [18–50 years old, 4–20 migraine days/month, Body Mass Index (BMI)=25.0–49.9 kg/m2] to 16 weeks of BWL, (n=54) that targeted exercise and eating behaviors for weight loss, or Migraine Education control (ME, n=56) that delivered didactic instruction on migraine and treatments. Participants completed a 4-week smartphone headache diary at baseline, post-treatment (16–20 weeks) and follow-up (32–36 weeks). The primary outcome was post-treatment change in migraine days/month, analyzed via linear mixed effects models. Results Of 110 participants randomized, 85 (78%) and 80 (73%) completed post-treatment and follow-up. Although BWL achieved greater weight loss [mean (95% CI) kg] vs. ME at post-treatment [−3.8 (−2.5, −5.0) vs. +0.9 (−0.4,2.2) p<.001] and follow-up [−3.2 (−2.0, −4.5) vs. +1.1 (−0.2,2.4), p<.001], there were no significant group (BWL vs. ME) differences [mean (95%CI)] migraine days/month at post-treatment [−3.0 (−2.0, −4.0) vs. −4.0 (−2.9, −5.0), p=.185] or follow-up [−3.8 (−2.7, −4.8) vs. −4.4 (−3.4, −5.5), p=.378]. Conclusion Contrary to hypotheses, BWL and ME yielded similar, sustained reductions in migraine headaches. Future research should evaluate whether adding BWL to standard pharmacologic and/or non-pharmacologic migraine treatment approaches yields greater benefits.

Objective/Background The role of diet in migraine is not well understood. We sought to characterize usual dietary intake patterns and diet quality in a nationally representative sample of women with and without severe headache or migraine. We also examined whether the relationship between migraine and diet differs by weight status. Methods In this analysis, women with migraine or severe headache status was determined by questionnaire for 3069 women, ages 20-50 years, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, 1999-2004. Women who experienced severe headaches or migraines were classified as migraine for the purposes of this analysis. Dietary intake patterns (micro- and macronutrient intake and eating frequency) and diet quality, measured by the Healthy Eating Index, 2005, were determined using one 24-hour dietary recall. Results Dietary intake patterns did not significantly differ between women with and without migraine. Normal weight women with migraine had significantly lower diet quality (Healthy Eating Index, 2005 total scores) than women without migraine (52.5 ± 0.9 vs 45.9 ± 1.0; P < .0001). Conclusions Whereas findings suggest no differences in dietary intake patterns among women with and without migraine, dietary quality differs by migraine status in normal weight women. Prospective analyses are needed to establish how diet relates to migraine onset, characteristics, and clinical features in individuals of varying weight status.