Topic: Attention & Performance
Association between aerobic fitness and sustained attention: A behavioural and electrophysiological approach Luque-Casado, A.1,2,3, Perakakis, P.2,4, Ciria, L.F.,1,2 & Sanabria, D.1,2 1 Dept.
of Experimental Psychology. University of Granada; 2 Brain, Mind, & Behaviour Research Center. University of Granada; 3Dept. of Physical Education and Sport. University of Granada; 4Dept. of Personality, Evaluation & Psychological Treatment. University of Granada
[email protected]
HUM-957 NEUROERGONOMIA
Introduction and Objectives » The central nervous system (CNS) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) are reciprocally interconnected and maintain a bidirectional relationship (Thayer & Lane, 2009). » Chronic exercise exerts anatomical and functional adaptations both in CNS and in the ANS (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008; Aubert, Seps, & Beckers, 2003). » Luque-Casado et al. (2013) demonstrated an association between ANS functioning and sustained attention performance as a function of aerobic fitness.
Aim of the study: To investigate the neural and autonomic physiological mechanisms underlying individual differences in sustained attention as a function of aerobic fitness.
Methods PVT
Event Related Potentials (ERPs) Target-locked (P300)
» 50 participants (25 high-fit and 25 low-fit). All participants performed aN incremental cycleergometer test to determine their physical fitness.
Cue : 2000ms
Cue-locked (Contingent Negative Variation; CNV)
2000 (…) 10000 ms (random values)
» Sustained attention was measured by a 60’ version of the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT).
Phasic Cardiac Responses (PCRs)
Target: until response
» Reaction times (RTs), event-related potentials (ERPs) and cardiac autonomic function (i.e., phasic cardiac responses; PCRs) were obtained and analysed as a function of time-on-task (5 temporal blocks of 12 minutes)
245 ms
Feedback: 300 ms
Fixed intertrial: 2000 ms
Weighted average heart period
Results Behavioural
_
P300
RT (ms) Block1 Block2 Block3 Block4 Block5 High-fit 261.2 [258.8, 263.5]* 274.6 [272.2, 277.1]* 282.7 [279.7, 285.8]* 293.2 [290.0, 296.5] 300.1 [296.8, 303.6] Low-fit 271.6 [269.1, 274.3]* 281.3 [278.5, 284.0]* 288.8 [285.5, 292.0]* 293.0 [289.9, 296.2] 299.4 [295.7, 303.1]
_
_
CNV
_
_
PCRs
High-fit
_
Low-fit
Cue-locked PCRs (ms)
8 6 4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10
Summary and Conclusions » High-fit showed better performance (i.e., shorter RTs) than low-fit in the first half of the task. This was accompanied by enhanced brain response preparation (i.e., larger amplitude in the CNV potential) and transient autonomic responses suggestive of an attentive preparatory state. » High-fit individuals showed neurophysiological activity suggestive of better ability to allocate attentional resources over time (i.e., maintained larger P3 amplitude throughout the task compared to low-fit, who showed a reduction in the P3 magnitude over time). » Our findings demonstrated a positive association between aerobic fitness, sustained attention, and response preparation. These results also suggest a more efficient bidirectional interconnection between the functioning of the CNS and ANS (indexed by the parallelism CNV-transient autonomic responses) in high-fit participants, which seems to facilitate the behavioural performance in attentional demanding contexts.
References
Funded by
Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2009). Claude Bernard and the heart–brain connection: Further elaboration of a model of neurovisceral integration. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(2),81–88. Aubert, A. E., Seps, B., & Beckers, F. (2003). Heart Rate Variability in Athletes. Sports Medicine, 33(12), 889–919. Hillman, C. H., Erickson, K. I., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(1), 58–65. Luque-Casado, A., Zabala, M., Morales, E., Mateo-March, M., & Sanabria, D. (2013). Cognitive Performance and Heart Rate Variability: The Influence of Fitness Level. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e56935.
Ref: PSI2013-46385-P
