Factors influencing executive function by physical activity level among young adults: a near-infrared spectroscopy study

Abstract

[Purpose] Prevention of dementia requires early intervention against it. To ensure that early interventions are effective it is crucial to study the cognitive functions related to dementia in young adulthood. Moreover, it is needed not only to verify the cognitive function test but also to elucidate the actual brain activity and the influence of related factors on the brain activity. To investigate the factors influencing cognitive function among young adults and examine the differences in executive function by physical activity level. [Subjects and Methods] Forty healthy university students (mean age, 20.4 years) were classified into two groups by cognitive function score (HIGH and LOW), determined according to Trail Making Test performance and Stroop task processing time. We then assessed what factors were related to cognitive function by logistic regression analysis. Executive function was determined by brain blood flow using near-infrared spectroscopy during the Stroop task, and was then compared by physical activity levels (determined according to number of steps per hour). [Results] Full-scale Intelligence Quotient according to the 3rd Wechsler Adult Intelligent Scale and number of steps per hour influenced cognitive function score, with odds ratios of 1.104 and 1.012, respectively. Oxy-hemoglobin concentrations in areas related to executive function during the Stroop task were significantly higher among those in the high physical activity group than among those in the low physical activity group. [Conclusion] The study revealed that Full-scale Intelligence Quotient and a number of steps per hour are factors associated with the cognitive functions in young adulthood. In addition, activity in execution function related area was found to be significantly higher in the high physical activity group than in the low physical activity group, suggesting the importance of physical activity for enhancing young adulthood cognitive functions.

Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Neuroimaging in Exercise–Cognition Science: A Systematic, Methodology-Focused Review

“…The majority of the reviewed studies used the international EEG system for the placement of the optodes [6,7,8,11,12,13,77,79,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109] and set the source-detector separations at 3.0 cm [6,7,8,12,77,78,79,96,99,100,102,104,106,107,109,110,111]. A detailed overview about the used source-detector separations utilized in the remaining studies is given in Figure 4a.…”

“…In almost all studies baseline brain activation was assessed in a sitting position [6,7,8,11,12,13,77,78,79,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,115,116,117,118,119,120]. The quantification of baseline brain activation lasted from 2 s [6,7,8,12,77,106,109] to 10 min [97,116,119]. Other commonly used durations for the evaluation of baseline brain activation were 10 s [13,79,99,100,107], 30 s [102,104,105,108,120], or 120 s [103,111,118].…”

“…A block design was used in eleven studies [11,13,78,99,100,102,103,104,107,112,113], whereas an event-related design was applied in ten studies [6,7,8,12,77,106,109,110,111,114]. In the remaining studies, cognitive testing was performed after the assessment of baseline brain activity [79,96,97,98,101,105,108,115,116,117,118,119,120].…”

“…Two studies [108,120] used age-dependent DPF values calculated as described in Duncan et al [123]. In the remaining studies, arbitrary units [6,7,8,12,13,77,78,79,96,100,102,104,106,107,109,111] or saturation index/tissue oxygenation index ( StO 2 or TOI = oxyHb/totHb) [10,105,108,115,116,120], which do not rely on specific DPF values [124,125], were used.…”

Control of a Prosthetic Arm Using fNIRS, a Neural-Machine Interface

“…A comfortable chair was set up roughly 100 cm away from the subjects so that the motion cues are visible to them while the screen backlight does not interfere with the optical sensors [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. This environment was set up for signal extraction.…”