Relação entre aptidão cardiorrespiratória e desempenho das funções executivas e atenção sustentada de meninos e meninas de 11-16 anos: um estudo transversal

Abstract

During adolescence, girls begin pubertal maturity earlier than boys in the same age range. The sexual hormones contribute in structural and functional brain changes, which may substantially affect cognitive capacity in this time period. Even though there are evidences that cardiorespiratory fitness is positively related to executive function capacity in childhood, this relationship in adolescence and its sex specificity is limited. Therefore, the aim of our study was to verify the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness, executive function and sustained attention performance in schoolchildren aged 11‒16. For this, 57 girls and 75 boys from a private school in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, participated in our study. Each participant completed a progressive running test to determine peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), computerized cognitive tests and questionnaires for daytime sleepiness as well as other factors that might influence physical and cognitive performance (age, pubertal stage and body mass index). Results are expressed as unstandardized betas and 95% confidence intervals. 73.7% of girls and 72% of boys presented healthy levels of cardiorespiratory fitness. After adjusting for covariates, we found that a higher VO2peak was associated which better performance in cognitive flexibility in girls, which was assessed through categories completed (β = 0.174; 95% CI 0.035, 0.314; P = 0.015) and persistent errors (β = -0.710; 95% CI -1.265, -0.155; P = 0.013) in Berg’s card sorting test. However, in boys, a higher VO2peak was associated with better performance in planning and problem solving, assessed through planning time in the tower of London test (β = -105.7; 95% CI -206.9, -4.5; P = 0.041). In conclusion, the findings in our transversal study suggest that the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and executive function in school children aged 11‒16 years is specific to each sex. Higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were related to better cognitive flexibility performance in girls, and to the better planning and problem solving performance in boys.