Fitness-Dependent Effect of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Executive Function

FIGURE 1. Experimental procedure involving group assignment and exercise intervention.

FIGURE 2. Illustration of the experimental procedure of n-back tasks during fMRI. (A) Task procedure and time arrangement using a block design. (B) Illustration of four trials of the 0-back, 1-back, and 2-back tasks.

FIGURE 3. Illustration of the interaction effect in the accuracy of task performance between intervention conditions and fitness groups induced by acute aerobic exercise. Comparisons of the performance accuracy between the high- and low-fitness groups before and after exercise in the (A) 0-back task, (B) 1-back task, and (C) 2-back task.

FIGURE 4. Localization and activation of brain regions during N-back tasks. (A) Activation of the right cerebellum in the 0-back task. The left panel presents the localization of the right cerebellum (RC) on an axial view. The red dot indicates the position of the RC. The right panel indicates the beta value of RC activation before and after exercise between the high- and low-fitness groups in the 0-back task. The red bar indicates high-fitness group and the blue bar indicates low-fitness group. (B) The activation of the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in the 2-back task. The left panel presents the localization of the ACC on a sagittal view. The red dot indicates the position of the ACC. The right panel indicates the beta value of ACC activation before and after exercise between the high- and low-fitness groups in the 0-back task. The red bar indicates the high-fitness group and the blue bar indicates the low-fitness group. (C) The activation of the left globus pallidus (LGP) in the 2-back task. The left panel presents the localization of the LGP on a sagittal view. The red dot indicates the position of the LGP. The right panel indicates the beta value of LGP activation before and…