Acceso usuarios
Maximiliano Bossio
, Nadia Justel
Hay múltiples investigaciones que hallan una relación entre las prácticas físicamente activantes y la modulación de las funciones ejecutivas. El objetivo de este trabajo fue explorar los posibles efectos del ejercicio y la actividad física sobre la memoria de trabajo, la inhibición y la flexibilidad cognitiva. Se realizó una búsqueda a través de palabras clave: actividad física o ejercicio, y funciones ejecutivas. Solo 33 artículos cumplieron los criterios. Se constituyeron tres secciones en relación con los constructos de interés. Las investigaciones cubrieron un rango amplio de edades para las que se emplearon tratamientos focales y de largo término. La exigencia moderada fue la intervención más empleada y el postratamiento, el momento de evaluación que arrojó mejores resultados. Aquellos individuos con estilos de vida vinculados a la ejercitación mostraron mejores desempeños comportamentales. Gracias a su bajo costo y versatilidad, estas prácticas podrían considerarse una herramienta relevante para los tratamientos que buscan beneficiar o conservar la salud cognitiva de los individuos.
Physical activity (PA) involves any activation of the locomotor system that generates an energetic expense above baseline. On the other hand, physical exercise (PE) implicates a recurrent practice sustained in time to obtain benefits at an anatomical, physiological and/or emotional level. Currently, many research studies on cognitive neuroscience have focused on these practices since evidence indicates that people who exercise regularly show a more developed and/or preserved cognitive health. Furthermore, many designs also implement interventions based on PA and exercise as experimental treatments.
Evidence showed a relationship between PA and PE and the modulation of several cognitive functions, including episodic memory and attention. The aim of this review was to explore a specific area of cognition, executive functions, which involves the processing of information with high cognitive demand, where the supervision and control of behavior are executed to provide an adaptive response to the requirements of the environment. While this construct integrates many sub-sets, a division into three fundamental nodes was proposed: working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility.
For this purpose, articles retrieved from Science Direct, PubMed, and SciELO were used, along with secondary sources extracted from the selected articles. A search was conducted using the keywords: physical activity and/or aerobic exercise and executive functions; 33 articles met the inclusion criteria. Three sections were formed in relation to the three sub-constructs addressed. The research covered a broad age range, from children and adolescents to young and old adults. For the three executive functions nodes explored, moderate PA was the most frequently type of practice employed either had a beneficial modulator effect. Regarding working memory, in some cases exercise was also complemented with an extra cognitive load related to the exercise under evaluation (e.g., tactical game variations), showing the most favorable effects, or matching the effects of exercise alone. No long-term training was implemented. In the studies on the inhibitory capacity, the modulatory effect duration was analyzed: as the time gap between the end of treatment and time of evaluation was major, intense demand exercises became the most effective condition. The characteristics of the individual were emphasized: the subjects with the best aerobic capacity showed the best behavioral performances. Respect to flexibility, in some cases PA with higher cognitive load achieved better results, while others found no differences. Finally, both the participant’s sport experience and their aerobic capacity were a relevant factor: the more developed levels of aerobic capacity or experience in sports that had varying contexts (e.g., ball games) were associated with better behavioral performance. PA and PE include versatile, low-cost, easy-to-implement interventions with minimal or no adverse effects. Adapted to the needs and capacities of each person, they are useful tools in the development of strategies that pursue the goal of enhance and/or conserve the cognitive function of different populations. For this reason, future research could further explore the phenomena involved in modulation, both of executive functions and of other areas of cognition, through physically activating interventions
