The Benefits Of Acute Aerobic Exercise On Learning In A Virtual Classroom In Preadolescent Children

PURPOSE: Today’s children are increasingly inactive and unfit, with >50% not meeting the recommended 60 min of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (PA). Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in further drastic decreases of PA in children. Of added concern, recent reports suggest that national scores in reading and mathematics have declined substantially. Thus, this study investigated whether a single dose of exercise may benefit learning in a virtual reality (VR) classroom in preadolescent children. METHODS: 47 children (15 females, 9.64 0.12 years old) completed two, randomized and counterbalanced 20-minute interventions: acute PA (treadmill walking at ~65% HRmax) and seated rest (control) on separate days, followed by an educational lesson in a VR classroom. Children then completed a quiz on the VR lesson. Quiz performance was z-scored across interventions by lesson. RESULTS: Results suggest that children have higher quiz performance following acute PA (z-score = 0.16 ± 0.13) compared to following seated rest (z-score = -0.18 ± 0.14; F = 6.17, p = 0.017), indicating that a single bout of PA positively impacts learning outcomes. When children were bifurcated by IQ (lower IQ group n = 23, 9.69 0.17 years old; higher IQ group: n = 24, 9.60 0.17 years old), children with lower had quiz performance that was higher after PA (z-score = 0.04 ± 0.20) compared to after rest (z-score = -0.60 ± 0.19), t(22) = -3.34, p = 0.003. Importantly, within higher IQ children, there was no difference in quiz performance after PA (z-score = 0.29 ± 0.17) compared to after rest (z-score = 0.25 ± 0.21), t(23) = -0.18, p = 0.86. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that learning outcomes are higher following acute PA compared to rest, and acute PA may be particularly beneficial for children who need it most. Findings from this investigation support public health guidelines for physical activity to promote learning across the school day.