Feb 18, 2025 23:00:00

30 minutes of aerobic exercise may improve cognitive performance in people with ADHD

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Walking for one hour a day may extend life expectancy by six hours, ' ' Regular exercise may reduce the severity of hangovers, ' and other examples show that moderate exercise has the effect of improving human physical function, and is also known to affect cognitive function and mental health. A research team from National Taiwan University has recently shown that 30 minutes of aerobic exercise may improve the cognitive ability of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Acute aerobic exercise modulates cognition and cortical excitability in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and healthy controls - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178124003937

Exercise Boosts Cognition For People With ADHD, Study Reveals : ScienceAlert

https://www.sciencealert.com/exercise-boosts-cognition-for-people-with-adhd-study-reveals

30 minutes of aerobic exercise enhances cognition in individuals with ADHD, study finds
https://www.psypost.org/226017-2/

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by brain dysfunction, such as 'inability to concentrate for long periods of time,' 'inability to sit still,' and 'inability to suppress impulsive emotions and behaviors.' Previous research has shown that when healthy people who have not been diagnosed with ADHD engage in aerobic exercise, the excitability of the cortex, the 'higher thinking' layer of the brain, increases, while people with ADHD, in contrast, tend to have suppressed neural activity. Another study has also found that people with ADHD have significantly lower levels of 'intracortical inhibition,' which suppresses neural activity, than healthy people.

So, a research team led by Kuo Xiaoyi, a neuroscientist at National Taiwan University, investigated the physiological effects of aerobic exercise on the cognitive performance of people with ADHD. The research team hypothesized that 'when people with ADHD engage in aerobic exercise, activity in the motor cortex is temporarily suppressed through inhibitory interneurons.'

The experiment involved 26 people with ADHD who were not being treated with medication, and 26 people who were not diagnosed with ADHD. In the experiment, the subjects warmed up for 5 minutes, then pedaled an exercise bike for 20 minutes, followed by a 5-minute cool down. Before and after the exercise, they were given tasks to evaluate inhibitory control and tasks to test motor learning , known as 'muscle memory,' and their performance was investigated.

During exercise, short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) was measured using

transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which measures the strength of signals between the motor cortex and muscles throughout the body, and can be used to investigate the modulation of neuronal excitability and inhibitory channels across the entire neural network.

Results showed that subjects with ADHD had enhanced short-term intracortical inhibition after aerobic exercise, whereas healthy subjects had decreased intracortical inhibition after aerobic exercise. Furthermore, people with ADHD performed better on both inhibitory control and motor learning tasks after exercise, whereas healthy subjects showed enhanced motor learning but no effect on inhibitory control.

In response to the results of the experiment, the research team said, 'When people with ADHD engage in aerobic exercise, certain brain physiological functions change differently from those of healthy people. Even a single bout of aerobic exercise temporarily enhances intracortical inhibition in people with ADHD. The results of this experiment may lead to improved inhibitory control and motor learning in people with ADHD. ' However, the research team pointed out that the subjects who participated in this study were mainly a small number of young people aged 23 to 24, so 'different results may be obtained if experiments are conducted with a larger sample or other demographic groups.'