International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114 – 121

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpsycho

The interactive effect of exercise intensity and task difficulty

on human cognitive processing
Keita Kamijo a,⁎, Yoshiaki Nishihira a , Takuro Higashiura a , Kazuo Kuroiwa b
a
Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8574, Japan
b
Yaizu Municipal Yaizu-Nishi Elementary School, 117-1 Shiotsu, Yaizu, Shizuoka, Japan
Received 22 December 2006; received in revised form 23 March 2007; accepted 2 April 2007
Available online 6 April 2007

Abstract

The interactive effect of exercise intensity and task difficulty on human cognitive processing was investigated using the P3 component of an
event-related brain potential (ERP). Exercise intensity was established using Borg's rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale, and task difficulty
was manipulated using a modified flanker task comprised of incongruent and neutral trials. Twelve participants (22 to 30 y) performed the flanker
task during a baseline session, and again after light (RPE: 11), moderate (RPE: 13), and hard (RPE: 15) cycling exercise. Results indicated that the
P3 amplitude increases across task conditions following light and moderate cycling, but not during hard cycling, relative to baseline, suggesting
that P3 amplitude may change in an inverted U fashion by as a result of acute exercise intensity. Additionally, the expected delay in P3 latency for
incongruent relative to neutral trials was observed during the baseline condition. However, following acute exercise these task condition
differences diminished across exercise intensities. Moreover, reaction times following all exercise conditions were shorter when compared to the
baseline condition. These findings suggest that P3 latency is more sensitive to task difficulty manipulated by a flanker task than behavioral
measures, and P3 latency during trials requiring greater executive control processes might be more sensitive to the effects of acute exercise than
tasks requiring minimal effort.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Exercise intensity; Task difficulty; Cognitive processing; P3; ERPs; Flanker task; Executive control process; Arousal

1. Introduction stimulus evaluation time (Kutas et al., 1977) that is generally

Recently, there has been increasing interest in the influence
of physical activity, and in particular aerobic exercise, on human
cognition. Most research investigating the effects of exercise on
event-related brain potentials (ERPs) have found some evidence
for the relationship between exercise-induced arousal and cog-
nitive performance changes. The most commonly studied ERP
component, the P3, is an endogenous component that is be-
lieved to index the brain activity required for the maintenance of
working memory when the mental model of the stimulus envi-
ronment is updated (Donchin and Coles, 1988). That is, the
amplitude of this component is proportional to the amount of
attentional resources devoted to a given task (Kida et al., 2004;
Schubert et al., 1998; Wickens et al., 1983), and the latency is
considered to be a measure of stimulus classification speed or
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 29 861 6724; fax: +81 29 861 6732.
E-mail address: k.kamijo@aist.go.jp (K. Kamijo).
0167-8760/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2007.04.001
unrelated to response selection process (McCarthy and Don-
chin, 1981; Pfefferbaum et al., 1983).
Prior P3 studies investigating the effects of acute exercise on
cognitive processing have been divided as to whether physical
activity facilitates cognitive function (e.g., Hillman et al., 2003;
Kamijo et al., 2004b; Magnié et al., 2000) or not (e.g., Grego
et al., 2004; Kamijo et al., 2004b). The contradictory findings
have led several authors to identify four methodological factors
that should be controlled in such studies: (i) the physical fitness
of participants, (ii) the intensity and duration of physical exer-
cise, (iii) the nature of the psychological task, and (iv) the time
at which the psychological task was administered to the parti-
cipants (Collardeau et al., 2001). Given these four factors,
Hillman et al. (2003) focused on the nature of the psychological
task by using a modified flanker task that manipulates executive
control requirements. Perner and Lang (1999) defined executive
control as “processes responsible for higher-level action control
(e.g. planning, inhibition, coordination and control of action
 K. Kamijo et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114–121
sequences) that are necessary for maintaining a mentally spe-
cified goal and for bringing it to function against distracting
alternatives” (p. 337). Included functions relate to the orga-
nization of action, mental flexibility, complex discrimination,
error monitoring, response selection, and inhibition, as well as
other effortful processes (Meyer and Kieras, 1997). One para-
digm that manipulates executive control requirements is the
Eriksen flanker task (Eriksen and Eriksen, 1974). This task
consists of two types of stimuli whose central target letter is
flanked by noise letters (e.g., HHHHH for congruent stimulus,
SSHSS for incongruent stimulus). Congruent stimuli elicit faster
and more accurate responses, and incongruent stimuli cause
decreased response speed and accuracy (Eriksen and Schultz,
1979). The incongruent condition requires greater amounts of
executive control due to activation of the incorrect response
(elicited by the flanker stimuli) before evaluation is completed
(Kramer et al., 1994; Kramer and Jacobson, 1991). The previous
studies investigating the relationship between acute exercise and
cognitive function using P3 have indicated general (Kamijo
et al., 2004b; Magnié et al., 2000) and selective (Hillman et al.,
2003) exercise-induced changes on cognition; however, to our
knowledge, only one study has examined the relationship be-
tween the nature of the psychological task and acute exercise
using P3 (Hillman et al., 2003).
Hillman et al. (2003) found increased P3 amplitude across
conditions of a flanker task approximately 48 min following
moderately-high intensity exercise, after participants' HR had
returned to baseline level. In addition, P3 latency indicated that
acute exercise was related to faster cognitive processing speed
only during incongruent flanker trials. No such relationship was
observed during neutral trials, suggesting that acute aerobic
exercise selectively improves cognitive processing speed during
tasks requiring greater amounts of executive control (Hillman
et al., 2003). Further, Magnié et al. (2000) observed larger P3
amplitude and shorter P3 latency elicited by an oddball task,
which is considered a non-executive task, after participants' HR
and body temperature returned to baseline levels following
maximal aerobic exercise, suggesting that these P3 changes are
caused by general arousal effects of aerobic exercise since these
changes were found to be of the same magnitude across elec-
trode sites. Polich and Kok (1995) reviewed previous P3 studies
and suggested that P3 is influenced by changes in arousal.
This arousal hypothesis has been used to account for the
observation that task performance has often been characterized
by an inverted-U shaped function (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908).
With regard to increases in physical arousal, performance is
predicted to improve to an optimal point, after which further
arousal will result in deterioration of performance (Tompor-
owski and Ellis, 1986). Additionally, as initially suggested by
Yerkes and Dodson (1908), the optimal arousal level depends
on the difficulty of the given task (Landers and Boutcher, 1998;
Oxendine, 1984). More specifically, Oxendine (1984) sug-
gested that if a task is complex, moderate levels of arousal will
result in optimal performance, while high levels of arousal will
result in deterioration of performance. If, however, the task is
simple it will require higher levels of arousal for optimal per-
formance to be exhibited (Oxendine, 1984).
115
Relative to the neuroelectric system, we have previously found
that P3 amplitude increased after moderate-intensity cycling and
decreased after high-intensity cycling compared to baseline,
suggesting that P3 amplitude changes may be described by an
inverted U-shaped curve relative to exercise intensity (Kamijo
et al., 2004b). That is, greater attentional resources were allocated
to the task following moderate-intensity exercise, while this
facilitative effect was negated following high-intensity exercise.
We further indicated that both Go and NoGo P3 amplitudes
elicited by a Go/NoGo RT task, which requires variable amounts
of response inhibition, changed after cycling exercise. NoGo P3
is interpreted as a reflection of inhibitory process (i.e., a different
aspect of executive control requiring response inhibition; Bruin
et al., 2001; Falkenstein et al., 1999; Fallgatter and Strik, 1999).
In the present study we focused on the intensity of acute
exercise and manipulated the nature of the psychological task to
investigate whether exercise intensity interacts with task dif-
ficulty during human cognitive processing. Oxendine (1984)
suggested that tasks with higher decisional demands require
lower arousal levels for optimal performance compared to tasks
with lower decisional demands. That is, in the present study, it is
considered that the incongruent trial with greater executive
control require lower arousal levels compared to the neutral trial
for optimal performance. Based on our previous research (Ka-
mijo et al., 2004a), the arousal level was presumably reduced
after higher intensity exercise. Accordingly, it was expected that
reaction time (RT) would be shorter and error rate would be
lower after higher intensity exercise during the incongruent trials
in comparison to the neutral trials. With respect to cognitive
processing indexed by P3, it was expected that greater allocation
of attentional resources and faster cognitive processing speed
(larger P3 amplitude and shorter latency, respectively) would be
observed after higher intensity exercise during incongruent trials
in comparison to the neutral trials. As such, these data may better
inform on the relationship between acute exercise induced
arousal of various intensities and cognitive performance related
to various amounts of executive control.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
Thirteen healthy males participated in this experiment. Data
from one participant were discarded due to excessive noise in
the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal. Thus, all analyses were
conducted on 12 participants aged 25.7 ± 0.7 (22–30) y. All
individuals reported being free of neurological disorders,
cardiovascular disease, any medications that influence central
nervous system function, and had corrected to normal vision.
The participants gave informed consent to participate in the
experiment, and the appropriate committee at the University of
Tsukuba approved the experimental protocols.
2.2. Procedure
This experiment consisted of a baseline session and three
intensity exercise sessions. Each session was conducted at the
116 K. Kamijo et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114–121
same time on a different day (M = 5.4 ± 0.9 days apart). The order
of sessions was randomized among the participants to minimize
potential practice effects. The baseline session consisted of
measuring participants' ERPs and behavioral responses during
the flanker task. In the baseline session, participants were seated
in a comfortable chair and prepared for neuroelectric measure-
ment in accordance with the Society for Psychophysiological
Research guidelines (Picton et al., 2000). Participants were then
given task instructions and allowed 30 practice trials. After the
practice trials, participants performed 300 trials of the flanker
task (incongruent : neutral = 150:150). In the exercise sessions,
the participants exercised at each of the three intensities using a
bicycle ergometer. They were attached to Ag–AgCl electrodes
before cycling exercise, and all electrodes had a resistance of less
than 5 kΩ. Impedances were checked after exercise to determine
that they did not change from pre-exercise levels. Less than 3 min
after exercise, the participants began the flanker task. A small
amount of blood was taken from the participants' fingertips, and
blood lactate was measured before and after exercise using
Lactate Pro (ARKRAY). The increased blood lactate values
between pre- and post-exercise were defined as Δ lactate.
2.3. Exercise
Before the experiment, participants performed a graded ex-
ercise test (GXT) using a bicycle ergometer to assess maximal
heart rate (HR) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE). During
the GXT, the work rate (WR) increased by 15 W per min
until volitional exhaustion. The HR and RPE were recorded
every minute. RPE was constructed by Borg (1970) to increase
linearly with the exercise intensity of work on a bicycle
ergometer. The scale values range from 6 to 20 (7: very very
light, 9: very light, 11: fairly light, 13: somewhat hard, 15: hard,
17: very hard, 19: very very hard). The pedaling rate was kept at
60 rpm. Participants pedaled for 2 min with no load as a warm-
up, after which point they pedaled until volitional exhaustion
was reached according to the above-mentioned method. Par-
ticipants were verbally encouraged to achieve their maximal
level.
Target HRs equivalent to an RPE of 11 (fairly light: light
exercise), 13 (somewhat hard: moderate exercise), and 15 (hard:
hard exercise) were calculated individually for each participant
from their regression lines of RPE versus HR in the GXT,
respectively. The brake pressure was adjusted mechanically to
the target HR in each exercise intensity session. After a no load
warm-up for 2 min, the participants performed exercise at each
load corresponding to the target HR for 20 min. The pedaling
rate was kept at 60 rpm.
2.4. Task
Based on Hillman et al. (2003), a modified flanker task
consisting of incongruent and neutral trials was used and the
participants were instructed to press a button with their thumbs
as quickly as possible to a centrally presented target letter. For
example, when ‘F’ was the target stimulus, participants re-
sponded with their left thumb, and when ‘X’ was the target
stimulus, a right thumb response was required. The stimulus-
response mappings were counterbalanced among the partici-
pants. The incongruent trial had the target response flanked by
the opposing target stimulus (i.e., FXF or XFX). The neutral
target response was flanked by letters with no response assign-
ment (e.g., LFL, LXL). The two conditions were equiprobable,
and stimuli consisted of black letters on a white background. The
letter arrays were presented for 500 ms with a 1500 ms inter-
stimulus interval that subtended an angle of 0.72° horizontally.
2.5. Recordings
EEG activity was recorded with Ag–AgCl electrodes at Fz,
C3, Cz, C4, and Pz according to the international 10–20 system,
with each electrode referenced to linked earlobes. To monitor
possible artifacts due to eye movement, an electrooculogram
(EOG) was recorded using electrodes placed above and below
the right eye. EEG activity was amplified with a time constant
of 5 s and a high-cut filter of 120 Hz. EEG data were converted
from 100 ms pre-stimulus to 1000 ms post-stimulus at a sam-
pling rate of 500 Hz. Trials with eye blinks, eye movements
(rejection levels: ± 80 μV) and response errors were excluded
from analysis. On average, about 30% of trials were discarded
due to artifact. P3 was defined as the most positive peak that
appeared in a post-stimulus window of 300 to 600 ms. P3
amplitude was measured relative to a 100 ms pre-stimulus
baseline. P3 latency was defined as the time from the stimulus
onset to the peak point.
An electromyogram (EMG) was recorded using a pair of
surface electrodes on the both right and left hand flexor pollicis
brevis muscles. EMG-RT was measured as the time from sti-
mulus onset to a sharp increase in EMG bursts.
2.6. Statistical analysis
The Δ lactate data and average RPE, HR and WR for 20 min
were analyzed using a one-factor (Exercise Intensity) analysis
of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures. EMG-RT and
the error rate were analyzed using two-factor (Exercise Inten-
sity × Compatibility) ANOVA with repeated measures. P3 was
analyzed using three-factor (Exercise Intensity × Compatibili-
ty × Electrode Site) ANOVA with repeated measures. The
reported significances for the F values were those obtained
after Greenhouse–Geisser correction when appropriate, and
then a correction coefficient epsilon was given. Post hoc ana-
lyses were decomposed using simple effects tests and Tukey's
HSD to identify the specific differences in factors contributing
to the variance observed in the data. The significance level was
set at 0.05.
3. Results
3.1. Exercise intensity
The mean Δ lactate, RPE, HR and WR for 20 min at each
intensity exercise are presented in Table 1. The Δ lactate ana-
lysis revealed a main effect for Exercise Intensity [F (2, 22) =
 K. Kamijo et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114–121 117

Table 1
Mean Δ lactate, RPE, HR and WR in each intensity exercise
Light Moderate
Δ lactate (mmol/l)# $
1.3 ± 0.3 2.4 ± 0.4
RPE value⁎ # $ 10.5 ± 0.2 11.9 ± 0.2
HR (bpm) ⁎ # $ 118.2 ± 2.3 134.2 ± 2.1
WR (W)⁎ # $ 103.0 ± 6.9 128.1 ± 5.6
Values are mean ± SE. Significance difference by Tukey's HSD post hoc
analysis, ⁎p b 0.05: Light vs. Moderate, #p b 0.05: Light vs. Hard, $p b 0.05:
Moderate vs. Hard.
17.18, p b 0.001]. The Tukey's HSD post hoc analysis indicated
that the Δ lactate following hard exercise was significantly
larger than following light and moderate exercise [t (1, 11) ≥
3.31, p ≤ 0.003]. The analyses for RPE, HR and WR also
revealed main effects for Exercise Intensity [F (2, 22) = 90.19,
p b 0.001; F (2, 22) = 727.63, p b 0.001, ε = 0.54; F (2, 22) =
82.83, p b 0.001, respectively]. The Tukey's HSD post hoc
analysis indicated that these three measures were significant-
ly different in each intensity exercise [t (1, 11) ≥ 7.27, p b 0.001;
t (1, 11) ≥ 23.23, p b 0.001; t (1, 11) ≥ 7.02, p b 0.001,
respectively].
3.2. Behavioral measures
The mean EMG-RT and error rate for both incongruent and
neutral trials are presented in Fig. 1. The EMG-RT analysis
revealed main effects for Compatibility [F (1, 11) = 25.68, p b
0.001] with incongruent trials yielding longer EMG-RT com-
pared to neutral trials. A main effect for Exercise Intensity
was also observed [F (3, 33) = 9.37, p b 0.001]. The Tukey's
HSD post hoc analysis for Exercise Intensity indicated that
across Compatibility conditions EMG-RT following exercise
was shorter than in the baseline session [t (1, 11) ≥ 3.18,
p ≤ 0.002]. There was no significant interaction between the two
factors.
The error rate analysis revealed a main effect for Compat-
ibility [F (1, 11) = 76.00, p b 0.001] with more accurate re-
sponses for the neutral compared to the incongruent trial. No
significant main effect or interaction involving exercise inten-
sity was observed.
cating longer latency for the incongruent relative to the neutral
trial only during baseline session [t (1, 11) = 3.00, p = 0.012].
Hard This compatibility difference was not observed following any of
4.7 ± 0.6 the exercise conditions due to shorter P3 latency following the
14.3 ± 0.3 exercise conditions during incongruent trials.
149.3 ± 2.3
152.2 ± 5.2
4. Discussion
In the present study, the interactive effect of exercise in-
tensity and task difficulty on human cognitive processing was
investigated using the P3 and behavioral measures (i.e., RT and
error rate). Our findings indicate that P3 latency changed fol-
lowing acute exercise only during incongruent trials requiring
greater executive control, while acute exercise influenced P3
amplitude across task conditions. With respect to behavioral
measures, EMG-RTs after all exercise intensities were shorter
than in the baseline session across task conditions. Finally, error
rate was not affected by acute exercise.
4.1. Exercise intensity
Δ lactate following hard exercise was significantly larger than
following light and moderate exercise. In addition, RPE, HR,
and WR were significantly different in each intensity exercise.
These results confirmed that each exercise used in the present
study differed in intensity. The average RPE for 20 min was
slightly lower than the target RPE (11, 13, and 15) because the
RPE value for a few minutes after the commencement of exercise
was low. Although the average RPE for 20 min was slightly low,
it is considered that the target exercise intensity was achieved.
4.2. Behavioral measures
EMG-RT in the incongruent trial was longer than that in the
neutral trial, and the error rate in the incongruent trial was higher

3.3. P3 amplitude

Fig. 2 shows the grand averaged P3 waveforms by compa-

tibility in all exercise sessions. Main effects for Exercise Inten-
sity [F (3, 33) = 3.49, p = 0.027] and Electrode Site [F (4, 44) =
13.18, p b 0.001 ε = 0.43] were found with lager amplitude after
light and moderate exercise compare to the baseline [t (1, 11) ≥
3.18, p ≤ 0.046]. P3 amplitude reached its maximum at Cz and
Pz [t (1, 11) ≥ 3.40, p ≤ 0.025]. No significant interaction in-
volving exercise intensity was observed.

3.4. P3 latency

Fig. 3 shows the Exercise Intensity × Compatibility interac- Fig. 1. Mean EMG-RT (upper) and error rate (lower) for incongruent and neutral
tion [F (3, 33) = 6.74, p = 0.001], with post hoc analyses indi- trials in all sessions.
 118
K. Kamijo et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114–121
Fig. 2. Grand averaged P3 waveforms for incongruent (upper) and neutral (lower) trials from all electrode sites in all sessions.
 K. Kamijo et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114–121
than that in the neutral trial. These results indicated that the
incongruent trial was more difficult than the neutral trial,
corroborating previous reports that have examined executive
control during a flanker task (e.g., Hillman et al., 2003).
In both incongruent and neutral trials, EMG-RTs after all
exercise intensities were shorter than in the baseline session. In
our previous study (Kamijo et al., 2004b), EMG-RT in a Go/
NoGo RT task did not change after cycling exercise. The mean
EMG-RT was about 200 ms in the previous study, whereas about
400 ms in the present study. In addition, it is considered that the
Go condition of the Go/NoGo RT task does not require a great
deal of executive control, although the NoGo condition requires
response inhibition, which is one component of executive con-
trol (Meyer and Kieras, 1997). Given that acute exercise-related
differences were observed in the current study, the findings
suggest that acute exercise may have a differential influence on
executive control processes elicited by a flanker task (i.e., in-
terference control) relative to the executive control processes
elicited by a Go/NoGo RT task (i.e., response inhibition). Stated
another way, despite the fact that both tasks require variable
amounts of executive control, acute exercise might have a lager
influence on the subset of processes involved in successful
performance of a flanker task than a Go/NoGo task. Chodzko-
Zajko (1991) suggested that effortful or attentionally demanding
tasks may be more sensitive to the beneficial effects of exercise
compared to tasks that require minimal effort. From these find-
ings, it is suggested that behavioral components of tasks re-
Fig. 3. Mean P3 latency for incongruent and neutral trials from all electrode sites in all sessions.
119
quiring interference control may be more sensitive to the effects
of acute exercise than tasks requiring response inhibition.
On the other hand, error rate was not influenced by cycling
exercise regardless of intensity. In the present study, the participants
were instructed to press a button as quickly as possible to the target
letter. It is suggested that error rate might not be changed following
cycling exercise, because the participants were not required to
respond as accurately as possible. Thus, acute exercise effects on
behavioral measures might depend, in part, on task instruction.
4.3. P3 amplitude
P3 amplitude following light and moderate exercise in-
creased across task conditions compared to baseline, while hard
exercise did not differ. P3 amplitude reflects changes in the
neural representation of the stimulus environment and is pro-
portional to the amount of attentional resources devoted to a
given task (Kida et al., 2004; Schubert et al., 1998; Wickens
et al., 1983). Thus, the present data suggest that more attentional
resources were allocated to the flanker task after light and mo-
derate exercise, and indicate that acute exercise of these inten-
sities may be beneficial to executive control function. In addition,
P3 amplitude was unchanged following hard exercise, which
supports our previous study indicating an inverted-U relationship
between exercise intensity and P3 amplitude (Kamijo et al.,
2004b). That is, facilitative effects on cognitive function caused
by acute exercise were cancelled following hard exercise.
120 K. Kamijo et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114–121
Tomporowski and Ellis (1986) provide some basis in which to
interpret the differential findings observed on P3 by suggesting
that exercise may initially facilitate the attentional process by
directly affecting the central nervous system; however, as
exercise intensity increases, the facilitative effects of exercise
may be cancelled by the debilitating effects of muscular fatigue.
In addition, it is believed that high-intensity cycling causes both
peripheral and central fatigue (see Dempsey et al., 2006; Faria et
al., 2005 for review). Accordingly, the cancelled facilitative
effects on cognitive function following hard exercise might be
caused by peripheral and/or central fatigue.
In addition, larger P3 amplitudes were observed following
light and moderate exercise across task conditions. In our pre-
vious study, differences in exercise intensity influenced both Go
and NoGo P3 amplitudes (Kamijo et al., 2004b). It was reported
that P3 is related to cerebral blood flow (CBF), such that increased
CBF was correlated with increased amplitude (Higashima et al.,
1996). Further, Bhambhani et al. (2007) suggested that CBF
increases during incremental exercise until the respiratory com-
pensation threshold, after which it declines until the termination of
exercise because of exercise induced hypocapnia. From these
findings, it is speculated that changes in P3 amplitude might be
due to alternation in CBF as a function of exercise intensity, and
these changes might not be related to task conditions.
4.4. P3 latency
P3 latency differences between incongruent and neutral trials
were observed only during the baseline session, while this
compatibility difference was not observed following all exercise
conditions. These findings indicated that P3 latency was shorter
after exercise during the incongruent condition, and was un-
affected by exercise during the neutral condition. Hillman et al.
(2003) examined the effects of an acute exercise on P3 using the
same flanker task as in the present study, and found that acute
exercise was related to shorter P3 latencies only during the
incongruent trial requiring greater amounts of executive control.
The present study supports this finding, and suggests that P3
latency during executive control tasks might be more sensitive
to the effects of acute exercise than tasks that require minimal
effort. The current findings indicate that acute aerobic exercise
of variable intensities serves to facilitate cognitive processing
speed, as indicated by shorter P3 latency.
However, the effects of exercise intensity on both EMG-RT
and P3 latency appear different (see Figs. 1 and 3). RT can be
decomposed to include, for example, components such as sti-
mulus evaluation, response selection, and response execution
(Doucet and Stelmack, 1999). However, P3 latency is consi-
dered a measure of stimulus classification speed or stimulus
evaluation time (Kutas et al., 1977), and thus only reflects a
small proportion of the cognitive processes observed in speeded
behavioral responding. P3 latency is often longer than RT in
simple or choice RT tasks and is unrelated to the response
selection process (McCarthy and Donchin, 1981; Pfefferbaum
et al., 1983). This claim is based on when stimulus evaluation
demands are increased, both RT and P3 latency tend to increase.
However, when response processing demands are increased, RT
is often the only measure that increases (Doucet and Stelmack,
1999). These findings suggest that P3 latency reflecting sti-
mulus evaluation processes are more sensitive to task difficulty
manipulated by the flanker task than RT processes, which
included response processes. In other words, the results of
shorter EMG-RT after exercises in the neutral trial might not be
related to facilitation of stimulus evaluation process, but rather
response processes. If this speculation is correct, than it may be
possible to design future research that will systematically ma-
nipulate through acute exercise these various aspects of the
stimulus-response relationship during information processing.
4.5. Limitations
The present study has several limitations. First, a modified
flanker task was used to measure executive control. Thus, the
present study investigated only one aspect of executive control
(i.e., interference control). Future research should encompass
several classical executive control tasks with variable demands
to not only better determine the effect of acute exercise on
executive control, but to tap various executive control functions
(e.g., attentional control, response inhibition, mental set shifting)
to gain a broader understanding of this relationship. A second
limitation of the present study is the small sample size, which
may have been insufficient to detect the interaction of exercise
intensity and compatibility for behavioral measures and/or P3
amplitude. Thus, future research should examine the effects
of acute exercise on cognitive function using a larger sample
to ensure adequate power. Lastly, EEG was recorded only from
5 electrode sites, and therefore site-specific changes may be
unaccounted for. Future research should employ a larger
electrode array to increase our topographic understanding of
the relationship between acute exercise and executive control
cognition.
4.6. Conclusion
In conclusion, exercise intensity interacts with task difficulty
during human cognitive processing. As Chodzko-Zajko (1991)
remarked, the present study indicated that researchers should
pay close attention to the nature of the tasks selected for the
evaluation of cognitive processing in studies investigating
the effects of acute exercise. Further, it is speculated that the
methodological factors providing contradictory findings to the
P3 studies (i.e., physical fitness of participants, exercise inten-
sity and duration, nature of psychological task, and timing of
ERP measurement) do not affect cognitive processing indepen-
dently, but interactively. Although the present study only in-
vestigated a fraction of the methodological factors involved, the
findings of the present study contribute to the knowledge-base
on acute aerobic exercise and cognitive function.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Nishihira/Tsukuba Project
of COE (Center of Excellence) from the Japan Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.
 K. Kamijo et al. / International Journal of Psychophysiology 65 (2007) 114–121
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