The Effect of Acute Concurrent Exercise on Executive Function: An Event-Related Potential Study

The shifting aspect of executive function was assessed using a computerised task-switching test. Each participant (N=78) completed 384 trials across six blocks (64 trials per block). The test consisted of two types of cognitive tasks: (1) number magnitude judgment (greater/less than 5) for digits 1-9 presented in solid-line squares, and (2) odd/even judgment for numbers presented in dotted-line squares. Performance was analysed by calculating each participant's mean response time (milliseconds) under four conditions:

Homogeneous condition: Blocks where participants performed the same task repeatedly (Blocks 1 & 2, e.g., AAAA or BBBB) Heterogeneous condition: Blocks where tasks were mixed (Blocks 3-6, e.g., AABBAA) Non-switch trials: Consecutive trials of the same task type within heterogeneous blocks (e.g., AA or BB) Switch trials: Trials where the task changed from the previous trial within heterogeneous blocks (e.g., AB or BA) Lower response time represents better task perform

The lactic acid system is one of the important systems of human energy metabolism. In addition to supplying energy to muscles, it can also be used as an energy source for brain energy metabolism. When people doing exercise, the concentration of blood lactate will be increased, and the lactate acid system will replace the glucose system as the main energy source for the brain. In the present study, blood lactate were collected from fingertip with a lancet and measured by lactate analyzer before, 17 minutes after, and after intervention.

The Stroop task consists of neutral, congruent, and incongruent trials. In neutral trials, colored rectangles were presented and participants were instructed to respond to whether the squares were red, blue, or green. For congruent and incongruent trials, participants were presented with the names of the three Chinese color words of 紅 (red), 藍 (blue), or 綠 (green) printed in either the same (congruent) or different (incongruent) ink color and instructed to respond to the color of the ink while inhibiting the meaning of the word.