Exploring the Influence of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Executive Function in Individuals with Trait Anxiety

Executive function (EF) is a cognitive construct supporting activities of daily living. Trait anxiety (TA) is a stable predisposition to experiencing anxiety some work has linked to an EF deficit. In turn, a single bout of aerobic exercise (AE) elicits a postexercise EF benefit and may support improved EF in high TA individuals. My thesis aimed to: 1) compare baseline EF between low- and high-TA groups, and 2) determine whether postexercise EF benefits differ between these groups. Participants completed a 25-min moderate-intensity AE condition and an equivalent duration non-exercise control condition. EF was assessed pre- and post-condition via the antisaccade task. Between-group baseline EF did not differ; however, a positive linear relationship was observed between antisaccade reaction times and an objective measure of TA. Additionally, low- and high-TA groups showed an equivalent magnitude postexercise EF benefit. Thus, exercise serves as a viable tool to “boost” EF independent of TA status.