Sympathetic Nervous System Mediation of Acute Exercise Effects on Childhood Brain and Cognition

NCT03592238 — Not applicable, Completed, 297 participants, Northeastern University

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Registry	NCT03592238
Status	Completed
Phase	Not applicable
Study type	Interventional; randomized, crossover, masking: none, basic science
Enrollment	297 (Actual)
Sponsor	Northeastern University (Other); collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Conditions	Exercise, Cognition
Interventions	Aerobic Exercise Intervention, Trier Social Stress Test for Children, Seated Rest (Other)
Dates	start 2019-02-10, primary completion 2024-06-30, completion 2024-06-30, first posted 2018-07-19, last updated 2025-06-22
Locations	1 site in United States

-Summary

Today's children have become increasingly inactive and unfit, with >50% of children not meeting the recommended 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Previous research has suggested that acute aerobic exercise of moderate intensity was associated with improved cognition manifested by improved performance and increased P3 amplitude, a neuroelectric indicator that reflects the amount of attentional allocation, in tasks requiring cognitive control. While minimal evidence exists to support potential mechanisms underlying the transient effects of exercise on brain and cognition, research suggests that phasic changes in the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) (as measured by salivary alpha amylase (sAA)) system are a potential mechanism for explaining the acute effect of exercise on brain and cognition. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to examine the mechanisms linking acute aerobic exercise to improved cognitive control as well as the underlying neuroelectrical activities in children, using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs). We hope to gain a better understanding of the role of acute exercise and cognitive and brain health. The results from this study will help identify mechanisms linking acute exercise to enhanced cognitive performance in children.

Our hypothesis is that exercise-induced phasic increases in sympathetic nervous system activity will mediate the effect of a single bout of exercise on brain function, cognition, and standardized achievement test performance.

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+Arms and interventions

Arm	Type	Interventions	Description
Aerobic Exercise Intervention	Experimental	Other: Aerobic Exercise Intervention	Participants will exercise on a motor-driven treadmill at a constant speed during the 23-min period.
Trier Social Stress Test for Children	Active comparator	Other: Trier Social Stress Test for Children	The Trier Social Stress Test for Children consists of a speech task in which children must finish a story and a mental arithmetic task, completed in front of a camera and two neutral observers.
Seated Rest	Placebo comparator	Other: Seated Rest	Participants will sit in a comfortable chair, placed in the same room as the motor-driven treadmill, for a period of 25-min.

Aerobic Exercise Intervention (Other): The protocol will include a 25-min bout of exercise at an intensity of 75% HRmax, such that participants will engage in a 1-min warm up and a 1-min cool down, with the majority of time (i.e., 23-min) spent exercising at 75% of HRmax.
Trier Social Stress Test for Children (Other): Participants will be asked to imagine that they are in a new class with 20 other students, and that their teacher has asked them to stand in front of the class and introduce themselves. The mental arithmetic task will entail asking children to serially subtract the number 5 from a larger number as quickly as possible.
Seated Rest (Other): Children will be asked to sit quietly or read a book of their choosing.

+Outcome measures

Primary outcomes

Neuroelectric outcome [baseline]: P3 - ERP
Neuroelectric outcome [~1 hr after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: P3 - ERP
inhibitory control [baseline]: accuracy
inhibitory control [baseline]: reaction time
working memory [baseline]: accuracy
working memory [baseline]: reaction time
inhibitory control [~1 hr after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: accuracy
inhibitory control [~1 hr after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: reaction time
working memory [~1 hr after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: accuracy
working memory [~1 hr after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: reaction time
Academic Achievement outcome [~1.5 hrs after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: WRAT3 (Wide Range, Inc., Wilmington, DE) Reading Accuracy
Academic Achievement outcome [~1.5 hrs after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: WRAT3 (Wide Range, Inc., Wilmington, DE) Spelling Accuracy
Academic Achievement outcome [~1.5 hrs after arriving at lab, after completing the experimental condition]: WRAT3 (Wide Range, Inc., Wilmington, DE) Math Accuracy

+Eligibility

Sex: All, ages: 9 Years to 10 Years, accepts healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

* Parental/guardian consent (non-consent of guardian).
* Participants must have had no prior diagnosis of cognitive or physical disability, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (severe asthma, epilepsy, chronic kidney disease, and dependence upon a wheelchair/walking aid).
* Participants must be free of any type of anti-psychotic, anti-depressant, anti-anxiety medication, as well as those medications used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (use of any anti-psychotic, anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medications).
* Normal or corrected-to-normal vision based on the minimal 20/20 standard in order to complete the cognitive task (below 20/20 vision).
* Participants must have not yet reached, or be in the earliest stages, of puberty, as measured by a modified test of the Tanner Staging System (onset of puberty as determined by Tanner).
* English speaking.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Participants with an intelligence quotient below 85 will be excluded.

+Locations (1)

Facility	City	Country	Status
Northeastern University	Boston, Massachusetts	United States

+Publications

Results publication: Lloyd KM, Gabard-Durnam L, Beaudry K, De Lisio M, Raine LB, Bernard-Willis Y, Watrous JNH, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Kramer AF, Hillman CH. Cross-sectional analysis reveals COVID-19 pandemic community lockdown was linked to dysregulated cortisol and salivary alpha amylase in children. Front Public Health. 2023 Dec 15;11:1210122. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210122. eCollection 2023. PMID 38169630
Results publication: Raine LB, Erickson KI, Grove G, Watrous JNH, McDonald K, Kang C, Jakicic JM, Forman DE, Kramer AF, Burns JM, Vidoni ED, McAuley E, Hillman CH. Cardiorespiratory fitness levels and body mass index of pre-adolescent children and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 17;10:1052389. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1052389. eCollection 2022. PMID 36733279
Results publication: Raine LB, McDonald K, Shigeta TT, Hsieh SS, Hunt J, Chiarlitti NA, Lim M, Gebhardt K, Collins N, De Lisio M, Mullen SP, Kramer AF, Hillman C. Sympathetic Nervous System and Exercise Affects Cognition in Youth (SNEACY): study protocol for a randomized crossover trial. Trials. 2021 Feb 18;22(1):154. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05096-w. PMID 33602325

+Funding

NIH grants: R01HD094054