the effect of an acute aerobic exercise with different intensities on the executive functions of 9-10-year-old children

Background: it is well-established that executive function can be affected by a session of aerobic training. our study aimed to determine how acute aerobic exercise affect executive function at different intensities in 9-10-year-old children.methods: the participants in this quasi-experimental study were 36 children (9.58 years±0.50) in saqqez, kurdistan province, iran in the first half of 2022. they were randomly assigned into 60% and 80% heart rate reserve (hrr) and a control group. all groups performed the progressive aerobic cardiovascular run (pacer) test in the first stage of study to ensure homogeneity. then, in the pretest- posttest design, inhibitory control and working memory were assessed using the stroop and n-back tests. during the 15-minute exercise session, participants exercised on a treadmill at different intensities of 60% and 80% of their hrr. one-way analysis of variance (anova) and paired t-test were employed to analyze between-group and within-group differences in control and intervention groups.results: according to the results, working memory scores of children improved significantly in 60% and 80% hrr groups (65.44±9.51 vs. 44.69±17.76) compared with the control group (31.00±2.02) (p<0.0001). different exercise intensities; however, did not show any advantage over a control group in the interference score of correct answers, or reaction time (rt) of inhibition control (60% hrr: 4.08±3.77, 80% hrr: 1.16±3.32, control: 4.25±3.62, p=0.074), (60% hrr: 52.00±65.91, 80% hrr: 85.66±59.75, control: 27.16±106.46, p=0.215).conclusions: the study findings revealed that working memory in pre-adolescents can be improved by a 15-minute session of moderate or high-intensity aerobic exercise. however, there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of inhibitory control.