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We examined the efficacy and feasibility of an iPad® app used at-home in identifying a postexercise benefit to executive function. The iPad® app required simple reaching movements mirror-symmetrical to an exogenously presented target (i.e., antipointing) and is a task that lab-based behavioral and neuroimaging work has shown to provide a valid measure of the response inhibition component of executive function. Fifty English-speaking individuals (18 female, age range 18-26 years of age) completed the iPad® app before and immediately after a 20-min session of heavy-intensity aerobic exercise, and on a separate day completed the app prior to and following a 20-min non-exercise control condition. Results showed antipointing reaction times (RTs) in the exercise condition decreased by an average of 18 ms postexercise (p < 0.001) with an observed large effect size (dz = 0.90), whereas control condition pre- and post-assessment RTs did not reliably differ (p = 0.12, dz = 0.22) and were within an equivalence boundary (p < 0.005). Further, pre-assessment exercise and control condition antipointing RTs were within an equivalence boundary (p < 0.05). Accordingly, a simple iPad® app provides the requisite resolution to detect subtle executive function benefits derived from a single bout of exercise.

Original publication

DOI

10.3758/s13428-021-01735-x

Type

Journal article

Journal

Behav Res Methods

Publication Date

10/2022

Volume

54

Pages

2398 - 2408

Keywords

Aerobic, Antipointing, At-home, Brain, Cognition, Vision, Female, Humans, Executive Function, Exercise, Inhibition, Psychological, Mobile Applications, Reaction Time, Adolescent, Young Adult, Adult, Male