• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Study: Preschoolers with higher cardiorespiratory fitness do better on cognitive tests

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
February 18, 2021
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Study in 4-6 year olds finds fitness-cognition link

IMAGE

Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report that 4-6-year-old children who walk further than their peers during a timed test – a method used to estimate cardiorespiratory health – also do better on cognitive tests and other measures of brain function. Published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, the study suggests that the link between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognitive health is evident even earlier in life than previously appreciated.

Most studies of the link between fitness and brain health focus on adults or preadolescent or adolescent children, said doctoral student Shelby Keye, who led the new research with Naiman Khan, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Such research has consistently found positive correlations between people’s aerobic exercise capacity and their academic achievement and cognitive abilities, she said. Studies have found that higher cardiorespiratory fitness in older children and adults corresponds to the relative size and connectivity of brain structures that are important to cognitive control.

“But it isn’t yet known at what point in the developmental trajectory of childhood this relationship emerges,” Keye said.

Previous reports suggest that, just like older children and adults, preschoolers are failing to meet daily recommended guidelines for physical activity.

“This is worrisome, since brain development of core cognitive control processes begins in early childhood and continues well into early adulthood,” Khan said. And yet, studies of this age group are limited, he said.

To better understand the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and brain health in 59 preschool-aged children, the researchers subjected them to several tests. The children walked as far as they could in six minutes, a test that allowed researchers to estimate their cardiorespiratory fitness. An early cognitive and academic development test gave the team a measure of each child’s intellectual abilities, and a computerized “flanker” task measured how well they were able to focus on the important part of an image while ignoring distracting information. Participants also took part in a computerized task that required them to alter their responses depending on whether flowers or hearts appeared on the screen – a measure of mental flexibility.

A subset of 33 children also engaged in an auditory task that required them to respond to certain sounds and not others while wearing an EEG cap. The EEG measured electrical activity during the cognitive control task.

“The EEG offers a noninvasive way to measure children’s ability to pay attention despite distractions and process information in real time as they complete tasks,” Keye said.

Statistical analyses revealed a relationship between the children’s physical fitness and their cognitive abilities and brain function, the researchers said.

“Preschool children with higher estimated cardiorespiratory fitness had higher scores on academic ability tasks related to general intellectual abilities as well as their use of expressive language,” Keye said. “They had better performance on computerized tasks requiring attention and multitasking skills, and they showed the potential for faster processing speeds and greater resource allocation in the brain when completing these computerized tasks.”

The study does not prove that cardiorespiratory fitness enhances cognitive abilities in young children but adds to a growing body of evidence that the two are closely linked – even in children as young as four years old, the researchers said.

###

This research was funded by the National Dairy Council, with partial funding provided by the department of kinesiology and community health and the Graduate College Fellowship at the U. of I.

Editor’s notes:

To reach Shelby Keye, email [email protected].

To reach Naiman Khan, email [email protected].

The paper “Six-minute walking test performance relates to neurocognitive abilities in preschoolers” is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau.

Media Contact
Diana Yates
[email protected]

Original Source

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/467061541

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10040584

Tags: IntelligenceLearning/Literacy/ReadingMedicine/HealthMemory/Cognitive ProcessesneurobiologyPediatricsPublic HealthSports/Recreation
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

CSF-1R Inhibition Halts Osteosarcoma Growth

October 7, 2025

SLC25A10 Drives Cisplatin Resistance by Blocking Ferroptosis

October 7, 2025

Fenofibrate Reduces Sepsis-Linked Kidney Injury Through Fatty Acid Oxidation

October 7, 2025

Early Detection of Rare Genetic Disorders Enabled by ‘Genomic-First’ Approach

October 7, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    784 shares
    Share 313 Tweet 196
  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    98 shares
    Share 39 Tweet 25
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    94 shares
    Share 38 Tweet 24
  • Ohio State Study Reveals Protein Quality Control Breakdown as Key Factor in Cancer Immunotherapy Failure

    76 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Optimizing Housing Designs to Cut Multi-Hazard Losses

CSF-1R Inhibition Halts Osteosarcoma Growth

Global Chemical Pollution: Latest Insights from Current Research

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 63 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.