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An Investigation into the Effects of a Single Bout of Passive Versus Active Exercise on Arousal and Executive Function

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Lila Gavigan¹ (), Antonio Mendes¹, Matthew Heath¹; ¹University of Western Ontario

Extensive literature reports that a single bout of active and passive exercise elicits a postexercise executive function (EF) benefit. Previous work proposed the benefit – in part – relates to an exercise-mediated increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF). It is, however, possible that an increase in CBF is an unrelated epiphenomenon and that the EF benefit reflects an exercise-mediated increase in psychophysiological arousal. Here, healthy young adults (N=17) completed, on separate days, 20-min sessions of a non-exercise control condition, and conditions involving 20-min of passive (via mechanically driven cycle ergometer flywheel) and active light intensity (cycle ergometer at 37 W) exercise. For all conditions, heart rate variability (HRV) was measured to provide an intervention-based measure of arousal, and EF was assessed prior to and immediately following each condition via the antisaccades task (i.e., saccade mirror-symmetrical to target). Results showed that passive and active exercise decreased time and frequency domain indices of HRV and thus indicated an increase in arousal. As well, active (p=0.0004) and passive (p=0.008) exercise produced a postexercise reduction in antisaccades reaction times; however, the magnitude of the reduction was not associated with HRV metrics. Thus, a single bout of active and passive exercise provides an EF ‘boost’ and offers convergent evidence that the benefit is not attributed to a unitary mechanism related to increased psychophysiological arousal or CBF.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control