Physical activity (PA) during childhood plays an important role in brain development. This role is played in both the structural domain, prefrontal cortex area, and in the functional domain, involving the higher cognitive functions, including the executive functions (EF). Working memory (WM), inhibition, and switching as fundamental EF were investigated in an Italian children sample before and after four months of an Enriched Sports Activities-Program (ESA-Program). EFs were assessed at pre-test and post-test using, respectively, the digit span test, the color word Stroop test, and the trail making test derived from Millisecond Software. The Italian sample was composed of 141 children aged 8.54 years. The intervention group (IG) was composed of 61 children and the control group (CG) of 80 children. Significant differences in WM (p < 0.05) were found in the IG following the ESA-Program intervention. Children’s performance improved both in forward digit span (FDS1 mean difference = 0.26; p = 0.04; FDS2 mean difference = 0.21; p = 0.01) and backward digit span (BDS2 mean difference = 0.14; p = 0.02). No significant improvements were observed for inhibition and switching processes (p > 0.05). Since this finding suggests that brain functioning is sensitive to lifestyle factors, such as PA, an essential goal for ESA-Program is to emphasize the importance of PA to enhance cognitive skills in childhood and prevent sedentary life.
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机译:童年期间的身体活动(PA)在大脑发展中起着重要作用。该角色在结构域,前额外的皮质区域和功能域中播放,涉及更高的认知功能,包括执行功能(EF)。在丰富的体育活动 - 计划(ESA-arch)的四个月之前和之后,在意大利儿童样品中研究了工作记忆(WM),抑制和转换为基本EF。 EFS分别在预测试和测试后评估了数字跨度测试,颜色Word Troop测试,以及从毫秒软件派生的路径测试。意大利样本由8.54岁的141名儿童组成。干预组(IG)由61名儿童和80名儿童的对照组(CG)组成。在ESA计划干预后IG中发现了WM(P <0.05)的显着差异。儿童的性能在前向数字跨度改善(FDS1平均差异= 0.26; P = 0.04; FDS2平均差异= 0.21; P = 0.01)和后向数字跨度(BDS2平均差异= 0.14; P = 0.02)。抑制和切换过程没有观察到显着的改进(p> 0.05)。由于这一发现表明,大脑功能对生活方式因素敏感,例如PA,ESA计划的基本目标是强调PA的重要性,以提高童年的认知技能,防止久坐生活。
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