Acute stress imparts a transient benefit to task-switching that is not modulated following a single bout of exercise

Figures

• 

  Figure 1. Schematic of the timeline of HR, STAI, and oculomotor assessments. The eye icon represents an oculomotor assessment. The desk chair icon represents the Rest group. The cyclist icon represents the Exercise group. HR, Heart rate; STAI-T, Trait Anxiety; STAI-S, State Anxiety; TSST, Trier Social Stress Test.

• 

  Figure 2. Schematic of the timeline of visual events. The first two panels depict the fixation cross and the presentation of the target, respectively. In this schematic, the green fixation cross denotes a saccade to the target’s veridical location (i.e., prosaccade), whereas the red fixation cross indicates a saccade to the target’s mirror-symmetrical (i.e., antisaccade) location. The subsequent panels depict an example of a task-repeat (i.e., prosaccade followed by a prosaccade) and task-switch (i.e., antisaccade followed by a prosaccade). Participants alternated between pro- and antisaccades after every second trial (i.e., AABB). For this schematic only a single target eccentricity presented in the right visual field is depicted.

• 

  Figure 3. Mean heart rate (in beats/min: bpm) and associated 95% confidence intervals for Exercise and Rest groups at baseline, TSST-Speech, TSST-Math, and Post-TSST.

• 

  Figure 4. STAI mean values for Exercise and Rest groups at baseline, TSST-Speech, TSST-Math and Post-TSST. Error bars represent 95% within-participant confidence intervals.

• 

  Figure 5. Rest group participant-specific pro- and antisaccade task-switch and task-repeat reaction times (i.e., open symbols) and associated group means at baseline (A), post-TSST (B), and post-Rest (C). Error bars represent 95% within-participant confidence intervals. As well, the lower right panel (D) shows difference scores and 95% between-participant confidence intervals relating baseline reaction times to each subsequent oculomotor assessment. For this panel, the absence of overlap between the error bar and zero (i.e., the horizontal line) represents a reliable effect inclusive to a test of the null hypothesis.

• 

  Figure 6. Exercise group participant-specific pro- and antisaccade task-switch and task-repeat reaction times (i.e., open symbols) and associated group means at baseline (A), post-TSST (B), and post-Exercise (C). Error bars represent 95% within-participant confidence intervals. As well, the lower right panel (D) shows difference scores and 95% between-participant confidence intervals relating baseline reaction times to each subsequent oculomotor assessment. For this panel, the absence of overlap between the error bar and zero (i.e., the horizontal line) represents a reliable effect inclusive to a test of the null hypothesis.