2025/11/27 by Yunzhou Liu, Rong Zhang, Qiao He +1 · 1 voice
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Cardiovascular and exercise physiology #Sport Psychology and Performance #Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
paper · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121620
openalex publication_date 2025/11/27 · openalex created_date 2025/11/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/19
PURPOSE: Investigate the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on school-aged children's executive function and reveal how they affect executive function focusing on underlying neural substrates. METHODS: Sixty students (aged 9 to 10) from two fourth-grade classes in a primary school were selected as the research participants and randomly divided into the HIIT group, MICT group, and control group by using a random number table after gender matching. The control group was asked to continue their regular activities such as school physical education, recess activities and so on, while the HIIT group and MICT group were required to conduct jump rope exercises continuously for 8 weeks (5 times per week) according to the requirements, in addition to their regular activities. The HIIT group was required to jump fast with feet together for 1 min followed by 1 min of rest, repeated for 5 sets, with exercise intensity ≥85 % of maximum heart rate; the MICT group was required to jump at a moderate speed with feet together continuously for 5 min, with exercise intensity of 60-80 % of maximum heart rate. Stroop color-word test (SCWT) was performed on the day before and the day after the intervention, during both of which cortical hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex were monitored using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). RESULTS: In the SCWT after the intervention, both the HIIT and MICT groups showed reduced reaction time under incongruent conditions, but the accuracy remained unchanged, and oxy-Hb concentrations in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (l-DLPFC) were reduced under incongruent conditions. McNemar test showed that HIIT and MICT-elicited improvement of inhibitory control and left-DLPFC activations were significantly coincided. CONCLUSIONS: Using HIIT and MICT methods for rope skipping exercises can improve inhibitory function of children aged 9 to10, with reduced left 1-DLPFC activation potentially reflecting improved neural efficiency during task maintenance and performance.