Arousal and Vigilance: The Effects of Physical Exercise and Positive Mood on Attention

The present study was an effort to examine the extent to which the different states of arousal, as induced through exercise and manipulation of positive mood, interact to affect attentional processes. Thirty-four healthy participants were randomly assigned into 2 mood conditions: neutral and positive. A computerized auditory continuous performance test was used to measure attentional performance. Following baseline performance at rest and mood induction, participants completed the test while walking on a treadmill. Results showed that the impact of physical exercise-induced arousal on attention varied as a function of mood, such that while exercising, participants were able to maintain detectability scores and refrain from making an exaggerated number of commission errors only following positive (but not neutral) mood induction. These findings suggest that the impact of exercise on attention may depend on other key variables, such as mood. ReseaRch aRticle force [3]. The notion that cognitive performance is associated with arousal levels has long been part of the academic research, and a correlational relationship between performance of attentional tasks and levels of arousal has been reported [4,5]. According to Ashby, Valentin, and Turken, [6] there are at least two possible ways for experimentally influencing the state of arousal in cognitive studies: mood induction and physical exercise. Although arousal may increase with either positive or negative mood, it is the positive emotion that is considered to directly impact high-level cognitive processes [7,8]. Among the cognitive processes reported to have been influenced by emotional states include intuitive judgments, decision-making, attention, memory, and creative problem-solving tasks [9,10], suggesting that emotional influences on cognition may be deeply rooted in evolutionary continuity [11]. In an effort to explain the influence of positive mood on cognition, the broaden-and-build theory by Fredrickson and Branigan [8] proposes that different discrete positive emotions, such as amusement and contentment, produce broadening of attention, cognition, and action. They suggest that by inducing positive emotion, thinking becomes more integrative, inclusive, flexible, creative, and efficient. Ashby, Turken, and Isen [12] support this theory by pointing out many well-documented effects of improved cognitive processes due to positive feelings, attributing these effects to the increased dopamine release associated with positive feelings. Introduction In recent years, attention and arousal level (or vigilance) has become matters of concern in the cognitive science domain, in which a growing body of studies using psychological and/or physiological approaches have been performed. Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest in the area of attention and arousal. Cognitive scientists have attempted to investigate potential influences of arousal states on attention, employing various psychological and physiological approaches [1,2]. Arousal is a general state of the central nervous system reflected in neural activity, which refers to the organism’s disposition to react with varying degrees of energy or ISSN: 2469-5718 DOI: 10.23937/2469-5718/1510057 • Page 2 of 6 • Kallo et al. Int J Sports Exerc Med 2017, 3:057 Of course, some of the discrepancy among the aforementioned findings may be the result of methodological variability (e.g., exercised intensity, individual differences in aerobic fitness, and the type of cognitive assessments used in the study). However, the inconsistent findings across studies may also partly result from the failure by investigators to examine potential key variables that have been reported to affect cognitive performance. As discussed above, one such potential variable is mood, which has been repeatedly shown to influence various measures of cognition. The present study was an effort to better elucidate the effect of arousal on attentional processes. As suggested by the aforementioned studies, there is a generally beneficial effect of positive mood on cognition. In parallel, the evidence for improved attention and information processing speed through exercise is mixed. Thus, although studies have examined the effect of mood and exercise on attention separately, to the extent of our knowledge, no study to date has examined the interplay among these parameters. Therefore, our primary objective was to examine the extent to which arousal, as induced through short bout of submaximal exercise and positive mood, interact to affect attentional processes, both in terms of accuracy and speed.