Acute effect of breaking up prolonged sitting on cognition: a systematic review

Abstract

ObjectivesTo review the current evidence on the acute effects of interrupting prolonged periods of sitting with intermittent physical activity (PA) on cognition in healthy populations.DesignThis systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines.MethodsStudies were included if they investigated the acute effects of taking regular PA breaks from sitting on cognition in healthy populations without any cardiovascular disease, history of brain injury, or psychiatric or neurological disorder. Four electronic databases—PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE and ProQuest—were searched for eligible studies on 20 September 2020. Study quality was assessed using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale.ResultsSeven studies, involving 168 participants aged between 18 and 80 years, were eligible for inclusion in this review. Three of the seven studies found positive effects of interrupting sitting with either (a) 3 min of relatively high-intensity (6 km/hour) walking every 30 min on attention and inhibitory control in young adults; (b) hourly breaks with progressively longer duration (10–30 min) of very light-intensity cycling/walking on attention, working memory and cognitive flexibility in adults with obesity; or (c) an initial bout of continuous moderate-intensity exercise, followed by interruption of post-exercise sitting with 3 min breaks of light-intensity walking (3.2 km/hour) every 30 min, on working memory in older adults with overweight.ConclusionGiven the limited evidence with mixed findings on this topic in the literature and the heterogeneity of PA protocols across the included studies, the results regarding the effectiveness of interrupting prolonged sitting with PA breaks in improving cognition warrant further verification.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020147536.

Effects of Physical Activity on Inhibitory Function in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Studies have shown that aerobic exercise training can bring functional plastic changes in brain areas such as the left inferior frontal gyrus [46,56], and previous meta-analyses results indicated that aerobic exercise has a positive impact on the inhibition control of children with ADHD [29,[57][58][59]. While present study findings corroborate those of these previous reports [57][58][59], the finding that type of exercise did not moderate the effect of PA on inhibitory control of children with ADHD contradicts previous reports. This disparity in results may be explained by the differences in the included studies in the meta-analyses.…”

A Deep Learning Approach to Classify Sitting and Sleep History from Raw Accelerometry Data during Simulated Driving

“…The movement patterns identified by ResNet-18 may reflect the differences in psychomotor function (e.g., reaction time) reported after breaking up sitting in previous research [11,[56][57][58]. Previous studies have reported improvements in psychomotor function, reaction time, and attention for cognitive tasks after breaking up sitting with light-to-moderate intensity physical [13,57,59]. The highlighted patterns in movement via the CAM of ResNet-18 might be reflective of the improvements in psychomotor function.…”

“…In comparison, ResNet-18 was more highly activated by movements rather than postural changes. The movement patterns identified by ResNet-18 may reflect the differences in psychomotor function (e.g., reaction time) reported after breaking up sitting in previous research [11,[56][57][58]. Previous studies have reported improvements in psychomotor function, reaction time, and attention for cognitive tasks after breaking up sitting with light-to-moderate intensity physical [13,57,59].…”

The burden of prolonged sedentary behavior imposed by uberization

“…The authors showed that the two-minute LPA bouts improved glucose uptake and reduced insulin demand, offering better glycemic control when interrupting SB. Similarly, other studies suggested that breaking up prolonged sitting can benefit cognitive function, 59 , 60 lower back pain, and discomfort, 61 but there is a lack of high-quality evidence.…”