Effects of moderate-intensity gymnastics on executive function in children aged 5 to 6 years
Objective The study aims to investigate the impact of moderate-intensity gymnastics on the development of executive function in children aged 5-6,thereby providing a theoretical foundation for exercise interventions targeting executive function.Methods A total of 63 preschool children,randomly seleted from 3 senior classes in a private kindergarten in Shangqiu,were ran-domly allocated to the intervention group(n=31)and control group(n=32).Children in the intervention group participated in 60-minute-gymnastics at a moderate intensity,three times per week,for a total duration of 12 weeks.Concurrently,myzone technology was utilized to monitor exercise intensity throughout the entire intervention period.Children in the control group maintained their regular activities.Inhibitory control(Flanker task),working memory(Empty house task),and cognitive flexibility(Dots task)were assessed before and after the experiment.Results There was no statistically significant difference in the performance of inhibitory control,working memory,and cognitive flexibility tasks between the two groups of children before intervention(P＞0.05).The re-sults of covariance analysis revealed significant differences in reaction time[(782.88±24.29,805.13±23.74;719.90±119.99,833.55±177.87;1 042.39±72.75,1 091.29±49.42)ms]and accuracy[(73.86±7.26)％,(67.02±8.22)％;(86.36±7.63)％,(80.50±9.39)％;(76.45±9.48)％,(69.59±7.66)％]across inhibitory control,working memory,and cognitive flexibility between the intervention group and the control group(F=6.84,4.50,4.87,6.11,3.74,5.06,P＜0.05).The intervention effect exhibited modest effects(d=0.17-0.74).Conclusions Moderate-intensity gymnastics can make modest or moderate effect on improving children's executive function.Brain imaging technology can be incorporated into future research designs to investigate the underlying mechanisms of gymnastics'impact on the brain structure and executive function in young children.
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