Acute exercise and aerobic fitness influence selective attention during visual search
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Summary
This study investigates how prolonged physical activity and individual aerobic fitness levels influence selective attention during visual search tasks. While previous research has examined the effects of brief exercise bouts on cognition, the impact of extended physical stress and the role of aerobic capacity in mediating these effects remain unclear. The authors aimed to determine whether sustained exercise modulates visual search performance and perceptual distraction, and whether these effects are dependent on an individual's VO2 max. The experiment involved 26 participants divided into an exercise group and a control group. Both groups completed a hybrid visual search flanker task nine times over a 2-hour and 16-minute period, with sessions occurring at 17-minute intervals. The exercise group engaged in steady-state cycling at approximately 50% of their VO2 max between task blocks, while the control group rested. The visual task manipulated search difficulty (low vs. high load) and distractor interference (compatible vs. incompatible flankers). Physiological markers, including heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), salivary cortisol, and alpha-amylase, were monitored to confirm the induction of physical stress. Physiological data confirmed that the exercise manipulation was effective, with the exercise group showing significant increases in heart rate, RPE, and salivary cortisol compared to the control group. Behaviorally, both groups demonstrated improved reaction times (RT) and accuracy over the session, likely due to practice effects. Crucially, the study found a significant negative correlation between aerobic fitness (VO2 max) and visual search RT in the exercise group during the test sessions, meaning fitter individuals performed the task more quickly. This relationship was absent at baseline and did not emerge in the control group. Distractor interference significantly increased RTs under low load conditions but not high load conditions, consistent with perceptual load theory. The findings suggest that aerobic capacity is a key determinant of visual search performance under conditions of physical stress. The emergence of the fitness-performance correlation only after the onset of exercise indicates that the cognitive benefits of fitness may be specifically relevant when the body is under physiological strain. These results enhance current models of selective attention by highlighting the interaction between physiological state and cognitive control, implying that aerobic fitness helps maintain efficient attentional processing during prolonged physical activity.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-17 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-25 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| enrich | success | openalex | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-17 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-20 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-25; verification: verified.
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