• Kazuya Suwabe, Kazuki Hyodo, Takemune Fukuie, Genta Ochi, Kazuki Inagaki, Yosuke Sakairi, and Hideaki Soya.
• Laboratory of Exercise Biochemistry and Neuroendocrinology, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba Ibaraki 305-8574, Japan; Sport Neuroscience Division, Advanced Research Initiative for Human High Performance (ARIHHP), Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8574, Japan; Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Ryutsu Keizai University, Ibaraki 301-8555, Japan.
• Neuroscience. 2021 Feb 1; 454: 61-71.

AbstractMuch attention has been focused on physical exercise benefits to mental health such as mood and cognitive function. Our recent studies have consistently shown that a single bout of exercise elicits increased task-related brain activation mainly in the dorsolateral part of the prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which results in improved executive performance. As the DLPFC is associated with the modulation of mood as well as executive function, it is tempting to hypothesize that exercising while in a positive mood would facilitate the beneficial effects of exercise on executive function via DLPFC activation. Thus, we conceived an experiment that used music to elicit a positive mood during exercise. Thirty-three young adults performed ten minutes of moderate-intensity (50% V.O2peak) pedaling exercise with two experimental conditions: listening to music and listening to beeps at a steady tempo. Mood and executive function were respectively assessed using the Two-Dimensional Mood Scale and a color-word-matching Stroop task before and after the exercise sessions. Prefrontal activation during the Stroop task was monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Exercise with music elicited greater enhancement of a positive mood (vitality) than did exercise with beeps. Contrary to our hypothesis, there were no significant differences between conditions in improvement in Stroop task performance and task-related cortical activation in the left-DLPFC. The correlation analyses, however, revealed significant correlations among increased vitality, shortened Stroop interference time and increased activation in the left-DLPFC. These results support the hypothesis that positive mood while exercising influences the benefit of exercise on prefrontal activation and executive performance.Copyright © 2020 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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