Acute stress has been shown to disrupt cognitive and learning processes. The present study examined the effects of acute stress on mind wandering during a lecture and subsequent lecture comprehension in young adults. Forty participants were randomized to acute stress induction via the Trier Social Stress Test or rest prior to watching a twenty-minute video lecture with embedded mind wandering probes, followed by a lecture comprehension assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA single bout of aerobic exercise benefits executive function (EF). A potential mechanism for this benefit is an exercise-mediated increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) that elicits vascular endothelial shear-stress improving EF efficiency. Moderate intensity continuous aerobic exercise (MCE) asymptotically increases CBF, whereas continuous body weight squat-stand exercise (SSE) provides a large amplitude oscillatory response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Cognitive flexibility represents a core component of executive function that promotes the ability to efficiently alternate-or "switch"-between different tasks. Literature suggests that acute stress negatively impacts cognitive flexibility, whereas a single bout of aerobic exercise supports a postexercise improvement in cognitive flexibility. Here, we examined whether a single bout of aerobic exercise attenuates a stress-induced decrement in task-switching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSustained cognitive effort associated with the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) increases objective and subjective measures of mental fatigue and elicits a post-PVT inhibitory control deficit. In contrast, passive exercise wherein an individual's limbs are moved via an external force (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered the model of university education. However, the most salient challenges associated with online learning, how university students are coping with these challenges, and the impact these changes have had on students' communities of learning remain relatively unexplored. Changes to the learning environment have also disrupted existing communities of learning for both lower and upper-year students.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPassive exercise occurs when an individual's limbs are moved via an external force and is a modality that increases cerebral blood flow (CBF) and provides an immediate postexercise executive function (EF) benefit. To our knowledge, no work has examined for how long passive exercise benefits EF. Here, healthy young adults (N = 22; 7 female) used a cycle ergometer to complete three 20-min conditions: passive exercise (via mechanically driven flywheel), a traditional light intensity (37 W) "active" exercise condition (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGrowing evidence suggests an association of lumbar paraspinal muscle morphology with low back pain (LBP) and lumbar pathologies. Unilateral spinal disorders provide unique models to study this association, with implications for diagnosis, prognosis, and management. Statistical shape analysis is a technique that can identify signature shape variations related to phenotypes but has never been employed in studying paraspinal muscle morphology.
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