Diverse Intensities of Acute Aerobic Exercise Impacts Immediate and Short-Term Cognitive Functioning in Young Adults.

This study examined the effects of three intensities of acute aerobic exercise—low (LIE), moderate (MIE), and high intensity (HIE)—on information processing speed and executive functioning in young adults aged 18–25. Forty recreationally active participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups (including a non-exercise control) and completed single choice (SC), multichoice (MC), and dual-task (DT) response-time tests, as well as the Trail Making Test (TMT) for executive function, before and after exercise. Results showed that exercise at all intensities improved reaction time (RT) and response time (RPT) during the more complex MC and DT tasks, but not the simple SC task, with improvements observed at 1 and 20 minutes postexercise; movement time (MT) was unaffected. Additionally, executive functioning, measured by the difference in completion times between TMT Parts B and A, improved in all exercise groups, especially at moderate and high intensities. The findings suggest that acute aerobic exercise facilitates cortical processing related to cognitive decision-making and executive control rather than motor execution, highlighting exercise’s potential to enhance complex cognitive functions.