Reliability Of A Cognitive Test Battery Pre And Post Maximal Cycling Exercise

Maximal physical exercise can acutely impact cognitive function. Tests aiming to assess cognitive function need to be reliable, ensuring low variability, so that studies can accurately measure the extent of the effects of physical exercise and/or nutritional interventions on cognitive outcomes. PURPOSE: To test the reliability of a battery of cognitive tests before and after a maximal cycling exercise bout. METHODS: Thirty healthy men (age 31 ± 7 y) attended three visits (V1, V2, and V3) to the laboratory to perform a battery of cognitive tests on a laptop using the Inquisit Lab (Millisecond Software, LLC). The tests included the Stroop Colour Test for selective attention, Letter Memory Task for short-term memory, and a simple reaction time test. The same battery of tests was performed three times each visit: upon arrival at the laboratory, after 40 minutes, and after a 1 km cycling time-trial. Linear mixed models were fitted considering individuals and experimental visits as random factors. In the case of pre-exercise measurements, where there were two trials per visit, trials were also included as a random factor. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated from these models, and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were obtained by bootstrapping with 1000 iterations. ICCs were classified as follows: <0.5 indicating poor, 0.5 - 0.75 moderate, 0.75 - 0.90 good, and >0.90 excellent reliability. Sensitivity analyses were done by excluding the V1 from the models in order to assess whether familiarization with the cognitive test influenced reliability. RESULTS: - Test ICC (95% CI) Pre Post Including V1 Stroop Interference Score 0.70 (0.42-0.85) 0.82 (0.67-0.90) Letter Memory Task 0.82 (0.72-0.89) 0.84 (0.71-0.92) Mean Reaction Time 0.74 (0.61-0.83) 0.81 (0.65-0.90) Excluding V1 Stroop Interference Score 0.87 (0.76-0.93) 0.85 (0.70-0.93) Letter Memory Task 0.83 (0.72-0.90) 0.84 (0.64-0.94) Mean Reaction Time 0.83 (0.72-0.90) 0.84 (0.64-0.94) Stroop interference score was calculated using the equation: total elapsed time + ((total elapsed time/number of questions) × number of errors). CONCLUSION: The reliability of all cognitive tests ranged from moderate to good, making them appropriate tools to determine the effect of interventions on cognitive performance. Notably, one familiarization session enhanced the reliability of the Stroop test. Additionally, measurements taken after exercise exhibited higher levels of reliability compared to pre-exercise assessments. FAPESP 2021/05847-8