Key result
While handgrip exercise generally reduced reaction time (p < 0.01), individuals with an exaggerated systolic blood pressure response (+38 mm Hg) experienced no significant acute cognitive improvement (p = 0.32).
Why the study?
Some individuals with normal resting blood pressure exhibit an exaggerated exercise blood pressure response indicating future hypertension risk, but its effects on cerebral circulation and acute cognitive changes are unclear.
Does an exaggerated blood pressure response to interval static handgrip exercise attenuate acute cognitive improvements in healthy young individuals?
Observational (n=30)
No
Does an exaggerated blood pressure response to interval static handgrip exercise attenuate acute cognitive improvements in healthy young individuals?
An exaggerated blood pressure response to exercise compromises exercise-induced acute cognitive improvements in healthy young individuals.
Exaggerated exercise BP responses may blunt acute cognitive gains in young adults; hypothesis-generating for mechanisms and other populations.
Some individuals, despite having normal resting blood pressure, exhibit an exaggerated blood pressure response during exercise, indicating a potential risk for future hypertension. This study aimed to investigate how different individual blood pressure responses to exercise affect cerebral circulation and exercise-induced acute cognitive changes in young, healthy individuals. To eliminate the influence of aging and disease, thirty young, healthy individuals (aged 21 ± 1 years) participated in this study. They performed an interval static handgrip exercise protocol, during which arterial blood pressure (ABP), cognitive function, and middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCA V), as an index of cerebral blood flow, were measured. Cognitive function was assessed using the Go/No-go test before exercise and 3 min after exercise completion. Individual changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP) were significantly and linearly related to the decrease in reaction time during a cognitive task, indicating cognitive improvement following exercise (p < 0.01). Importantly, in the top 10 subjects with the highest SBP responses (n = 10, + 38 ± 8 mm Hg), this cognitive improvement was not statistically significant (p = 0.32). These findings suggest that an exaggerated ABP response to exercise may compromise acute cognitive enhancements induced by exercise in young individuals.
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Kunimatsu et al. (2025) conducted an observational in Healthy volunteers (n=30). Interval static handgrip exercise vs. Baseline (pre-exercise) was evaluated on Reaction time on the Go/No-go task (ms) (d = 0.43, p=<0.01). While handgrip exercise generally reduced reaction time (p < 0.01), individuals with an exaggerated systolic blood pressure response (+38 mm Hg) experienced no significant acute cognitive improvement (p = 0.32).
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