An exploration of exercise-induced cognitive enhancement and transfer effects to dietary self-control

In their study, Lowe, Kolev, and Hall (2016) sought out to investigate the impact of aerobic exercise on executive function, particularly on inhibitory control, and how this might transfer to self-control in terms of one’s dietary intake. 51 participants, enlisted in a cross-over study, completed sessions involving moderate treadmill exercise (experimental condition) and minimal effort walking (control condition) with a 7-day interval between sessions. Ahead of the exercise sessions, participants performed a set of Stroop tasks (designed to measure a person’s selective attention capacity and skills, processing speed, and to evaluate overall executive processing abilities), as well as a bogus taste test including three, calorie dense snack foods, and two control foods, with the measurement parameter being the extent of food eaten during the taste test. Results demonstrated that moderate exercise positively impacted participants’ performance on Stroop tasks, in addition to decreasing the amount of snack foods consumed during the taste test, with no impact on control of foods consumed. Thus, the authors conclude that these results demonstrate that moderate exercise sessions can help strengthen inhibitory control, and this can transfer to self-control over food consumed. [NPID: Brain, cognition, diet, executive function, exercise, self-control]

Year: 2016

Reference: Lowe, C. J., Kolev, D., & Hall, P. A. (2016). An exploration of exercise-induced cognitive enhancement and transfer effects to dietary self-control. Brain and cognition, 110, 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2016.04.008