The Mental Muscle: Effects of Concurrent Effortful Physical Action on Visual Working Memory

Cappiello, Marcus; Zhang, Weiwei

doi:10.1167/18.10.705

Cited by 2 publications

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“…The close interactions between motor and cognitive functions can provide inhibition-based effects of physical effort (Cappiello et al, 2018; H.-B. Park et al, 2021; Voelcker-Rehage & Alberts, 2007; Xie & Zhang, 2023).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…More importantly, task-irrelevant distractors during the concurrent handgrip task can more easily capture visual attention (H.-B. Park et al, 2021) and get encoded into WM (Cappiello et al, 2018) under high physical exertion. In addition, the decline in WM performance can be observed when older adults simultaneously perform a WM and precision force-tracking task, which require fine motor control and coordination, than when the WM task is done in isolation (Voelcker-Rehage & Alberts, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Recent literature has documented strong links between cognitive and motor functions, which can often interact with each other, especially when executive function is involved (Cappiello et al, 2018; Leisman et al, 2016; H.-B. Park et al, 2021; Voelcker-Rehage & Alberts, 2007; Xie & Zhang, 2023).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Age-related differences in the ability to inhibit distractors present during WM tasks suggest that older adults’ ability to filter out distractors is reduced, which consequently can be reflected in reduced WM capacity (i.e., the number of items held in WM at a given time; Leiva et al, 2016; McNab et al, 2015). Therefore, due to reduced inhibitory control in older adults (Hasher & Zacks, 1988), and the susceptibility to task-irrelevant distractors during a concurrent handgrip and cognitive task (Cappiello et al, 2018; H.-B. Park et al, 2021; Xie & Zhang, 2023), it is possible that age could amplify the negative effects of effortful physical action on concurrent cognitive function.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Detrimental effects of effortful physical exertion on a working memory dual-task in older adults.

Azer¹,

Park²,

Zhang³

2023

Psychology and Aging

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Action and cognition often interact in everyday life and are both sensitive to the effects of aging. The present study tested the effects of a simple physical action, effortful handgrip exertion, on working memory (WM) and inhibitory control in younger and older adults. Using a novel dual-task paradigm, participants engaged in a WM task with 0 or 5-distractors under concurrent physical exertion (5% vs. 30% individual maximum voluntary contraction). Effortful physical exertion, although failing to effect WM accuracy in the distractor absent condition for both age groups, reduced WM accuracy for the older, but not young adults, in the distractor-present condition. Similarly, older adults experienced greater distractor interference in the distractor-present condition under high physical exertion, indexed by slower reaction time (RT), confirmed by hierarchical Bayesian modeling of RT distributions. Our finding that a simple but effortful physical task results in impaired cognitive control may be empirically important for understanding everyday functions of older adults. For example, the ability to ignore task-irrelevant items declines with age and this decline is greater when simultaneously performing a physical task, which is a frequent occurrence in daily life. The negative interactions between cognitive and motor tasks may further impair daily functions, beyond the negative consequences of reduced inhibitory control and physical abilities in older adults.

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Detrimental effects of effortful physical exertion on a working memory dual-task in older adults.

Azer¹,

Park²,

Zhang³

2023

Psychology and Aging

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“…For instance, engaging in a concurrent handgrip task during long-term memory encoding can impair later retrieval in young adults (Tomporowski et al, 2017). More importantly, task-irrelevant distractors can more easily capture visual attention (Park et al, 2021) and get encoded into WM (Cappiello et al, 2018) under concurrent physical effort. These inhibition-based effects of physical effort provide an intriguing perspective to look at functional declines in older adults given the widely observed age-related declines in cognitive control.…”

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Detrimental Effects of Effortful Physical Exertion on Cognitive Control in Younger and Older Adults

Azer¹,

Park²,

Zhang³

2021

Preprint

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Research assessing the effects of age on physical actions and cognitive processes is often conducted in isolation. However, action and cognition often interact in daily functions and deteriorate with age. Therefore, assessing how motor actions affect core cognitive abilities and how age amplifies these effects is pivotal. The present study tested the effects of effortful physical exertion (isometric handgrip) on working memory (WM) and inhibitory control in young and older adults. Using a novel dual-task paradigm, participants engaged in a WM task with 0 or 5-distractors under concurrent physical exertion (5% vs 30% individual maximum voluntary contraction, MVC). Given our previous understanding that high physical exertion impairs inhibitory control, we hypothesized 1) inhibitory control of access to WM will be compromised under high physical exertion and 2) this effect will be amplified by age. Effortful physical exertion, although failed to affect WM accuracy with 0-distractors present for both age groups, reduced WM accuracy for the older, but not young adults, with 5-distractors present. Similarly, older adults experienced greater distractor interference with 5-distractors present under high physical exertion, indexed by slower reaction time (RT), confirmed by hierarchical Bayesian modeling of RT distributions. Our findings that a simple but effortful physical task may result in impaired cognitive control may be empirically important for understanding everyday functions of older adults. Reduced inhibitory control and physical abilities may pose a problem for older adults as the negative interactions between cognitive and motor tasks may impair daily functions and possibly increase the risk of injury.

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The Mental Muscle: Effects of Concurrent Effortful Physical Action on Visual Working Memory

Cited by 2 publications

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Detrimental effects of effortful physical exertion on a working memory dual-task in older adults.

Detrimental effects of effortful physical exertion on a working memory dual-task in older adults.

Detrimental Effects of Effortful Physical Exertion on Cognitive Control in Younger and Older Adults

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