The purpose of the study was to identify the effect of a single bout of moderately intense aerobic exercise on measures of executive function in young adults with ADHD. Thirty-two young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years old were randomly assigned to either an acute exercise group or a control group. The exercise protocol was designed to address the methodological shortcomings in the exercise and executive function literature, and involved cycling on a stationary bike at moderate intensity for 30 minutes. Participants completed executive function tasks related to set shifting, working memory, and inhibition prior to and immediately following the treatment session. Results of the study reveal that acute exercise facilitated performance on the Stroop Color-Word task when compared to sedentary controls. However, unlike previous research on healthy adults, no improvements on the other measures of executive function were observed. These findings suggest that young adults with ADHD may specifically benefit from acute exercise on aspects of executive function related to the Stroop Color-Word measure. In conclusion, further research on this topic should continue to investigate this population, as well as consider the relationship between acute exercise and additional neuropsychological measures of inhibition, set shifting, and working memory in order to better determine the effects on each construct.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uiowa.edu/oai:ir.uiowa.edu:etd-5703 |
| Date | 01 May 2015 |
| Creators | Jones, Gerald John |
| Contributors | Ehly, Stewart W., 1949- |
| Publisher | University of Iowa |
| Source Sets | University of Iowa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright 2015 Gerald John Jones |
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