Electrocortical correlates of the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and sustained attention in young adults
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108271
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Summary
This study investigates the electrocortical mechanisms underlying the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and sustained attention in young adults. While previous research has established that higher CRF is associated with better sustained attention performance, the specific neural dynamics supporting this link remain unclear. The authors aimed to characterize these dynamics using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and source localization, moving beyond traditional electrode-site analyses to capture whole-brain spatiotemporal activity. The study included 72 young adults (18–37 years old) who underwent two sessions. In the first session, CRF was assessed via an incremental treadmill test to determine maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). In the second session, participants performed a 30-minute psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) while continuous EEG was recorded from 64 electrodes. Chronic physical activity was also measured using the Baecke questionnaire. Behavioral data included response times and accuracy, analyzed using multiple linear regressions that controlled for age, body mass index, and chronic physical activity. EEG data were processed using independent component analysis to remove artifacts, and event-related potentials (ERPs) were analyzed using non-parametric randomization tests, including topographic consistency tests, topographic analysis of covariance (TANCOVA), and global field power (GFP) analysis. Source localization was performed using standardized low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA). Behaviorally, higher CRF significantly predicted faster response times and higher accuracy in the PVT, even after adjusting for confounding variables. However, CRF did not predict the magnitude of the vigilance decrement (performance decline over time). At the electrocortical level, higher CRF was associated with increased global field power between 310 and 333 ms post-stimulus, localized to the posterior cingulate cortex (Brodmann area 30). This was followed by significant changes in scalp topographies between 413 and 501 ms, corresponding to the P3b ERP component. Source localization indicated that these topographic changes reflected earlier activation of the supplementary motor areas (Brodmann area 6) in individuals with higher fitness. The findings demonstrate that cardiorespiratory fitness enhances sustained attention performance through specific electrocortical dynamics, particularly involving the posterior cingulate cortex and earlier recruitment of motor preparation areas. This study provides the first evidence using high-density EEG to map the full spatiotemporal dynamics of the CRF-attention relationship, suggesting that fitness supports attentional maintenance by optimizing neural efficiency in key brain networks rather than merely reducing performance decline over time.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-24 |
| archive | success | openalex | — | — | 5 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | pdftotext | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| enrich | success | openalex | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-24 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-26 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: physiological data