Aerobic fitness and the attentional blink in preadolescent children.

OBJECTIVE Given the growing concern that children in today's industrialized and technologically advanced society are becoming more sedentary and less fit, a greater understanding of the extent to which aerobic fitness relates to brain health and cognition during development is of increasing importance. Accordingly, this study sought to use neuroelectric and behavioral measures during an attentional blink task to examine the temporal dynamics of attention as a function of children's aerobic fitness. METHOD Using a cross-sectional design, response accuracy and event-related brain potentials were assessed in preadolescent children with different levels of aerobic fitness. RESULTS Results indicated that higher fit children exhibited greater task performance and better attentional resources distribution, as measured via the P3 component, compared to lower fit children. CONCLUSION These findings indicate that aerobic fitness may benefit aspects of cognitive health that involve temporal dynamics of attentional processes during preadolescent maturation.