Physical Activity Is Associated With Attentional Focus But Not Context Updating In Adult Binge Drinkers

Physical activity confers benefits to human health, including brain health and cognition. Such benefits have been studied using event-related brain potential (ERPs), including the P3 component, a positive-going deflection in the stimulus-locked ERP linked to attention and memory processes. The P3 is comprised of two subcomponents that reflect the inhibition of extraneous neural activity to facilitate attention-driven stimulus evaluation across frontal brain regions (P3a) and subsequent memory storage across temporoparietal brain regions (P3b). Although physical activity has been shown to be positively associated with P3b amplitude, it remains unclear whether physical activity is related to the early or later cognitive processes indexed by the P3a and P3b in adults who binge drink alcohol, a group at high risk for early cognitive impairment. PURPOSE: To examine associations between physical activity with neural inhibitory processes reflected by the P3a and P3b subcomponents across two cognitive paradigms in a sample of young adults who endorse binge drinking alcohol. METHODS: Seventy-eight participants (56 females; 20.8 + 2.3 years) recruited as part of a larger study completed a cued Go/No-Go and Oddball task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. The P3a was extracted from no-go trials during the Go/No-Go task across frontocentral midline scalp sites while the P3b was extracted from oddball trials during the Oddball task at the parietal midline scalp site. RESULTS: Physical activity significantly differed between individuals reporting higher versus lower physical activity (918.1 + 608.5 vs. 279.8 + 123.6 mins/week, g = 1.44, p < .001). No-go P3a (r = -.21, p < .10) and oddball P3a (r = -.18, p = .12) amplitudes were significantly associated with physical activity. No-go P3a was attenuated in the high relative to low physical activity group (5.1 + 4.1 vs. 3.7 + 5.3 μV, η2 = .04, g = 0.39, p’s = .10). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest physical activity is associated with inhibitory processes supporting attentional evaluation across frontal regions but not working memory updating at parietal regions in young adult binge drinkers. Supported by NIH Grant R21AA029604 Supported by NIH Grant R21AA029604