Various modalities of resistance exercise promote similar acute cognitive improvements and hemodynamic increases in young, healthy adults

Genevieve B Batman; Christian B Cooper; Miranda K Traylor; Kyndall V Ransom; Ethan C Hill; Benjamin D Hill; Joshua L Keller

doi:10.1016/j.cccb.2024.100363

Various modalities of resistance exercise promote similar acute cognitive improvements and hemodynamic increases in young, healthy adults

Cereb Circ Cogn Behav. 2024 Aug 17:7:100363. doi: 10.1016/j.cccb.2024.100363. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Genevieve B Batman¹, Christian B Cooper^{1

2}, Miranda K Traylor¹, Kyndall V Ransom^{1

3}, Ethan C Hill^{4

5}, Benjamin D Hill⁶, Joshua L Keller^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Integrative Laboratory of Exercise and Applied Physiology (iLEAP), Department of Health, Kinesiology and Sport, College of Education and Professional Studies, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA.
² College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA.
⁴ Division of Kinesiology, School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy, College of Health Professions and Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
⁵ Exercise Physiology Intervention and Collaboration (EPIC) Laboratory, Institute of Exercise Physiology and Rehabilitation Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
⁶ Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA.
⁷ Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA.

Abstract

The aim was to examine the effects of modalities of acute resistance exercise (RE) on cognition and hemodynamics including internal carotid artery (ICA) blood flow (BF). Twenty adults completed familiarization and experimental visits. One-repetition maximum (1RM) for bilateral leg extension was quantified, and baseline executive functioning was determined from three run-in visits. Subsequent visits included three randomized, volume-equated, acute exercise bouts of 30 %1RM+blood flow restriction (BFR), 30 %1RM, and 70 %1RM. Both 30 %1RM trials completed four sets of exercise (1 × 30, 3 × 15), and the 70 %1RM condition completed four sets of 8 repetitions. BFR was induced with 40 % of the pressure to occlude the femoral arteries. 11 min following each exercise, participants completed the Stroop and Shifting Attention Tests. Baseline and post-exercise values were used to calculate change scores. The resulting mean change scores were evaluated with mixed factorial ANOVAs. A p≤0.05 was considered significant. All measured outcome variables increased in response to exercise. The ANOVAs for cognitive scores indicated no significant (p>0.05) interactions. For cognitive flexibility and executive function index, there were main effects of Sex. Change scores of the females were significantly greater than the males for cognitive flexibility (7.6 ± 5.9 vs. -2.6 ± 8.4 au; p=0.007) and executive function index (7.4 ± 4.6 vs. -2.5 ± 6.5 au; p=0.001). For ICA BF, there was no significant interaction or any main effect. The females exhibited a smaller exercise-induced increase in blood pressure compared to the males (17.7 ± 5.9 vs. 11.0 ± 4.1 mmHg; p=0.010). Each RE modality yielded acute improvements in cognition, but only for females. There were no cognitive improvements related to BFR such that each RE bout yielded similar results.

Keywords: Blood flow restriction; Cerebral blood Flow; Cognitive flexibility; Executive function; Internal carotid artery; Sex differences.