Effects of controlled physical activity on cognitive process efficiency

Objective of the study was to analyze the effects of controlled physical activity on the cognitive process efficiency as tested by a mental arithmetic. Subject to the study were healthy young right-handed students (n=18) from National Research Tomsk State University (Mean ±SD; aged 19.19±1.20 years on average, 182.11 ±6.00 cm tall on average; and with average body mass of 76.83±10.90 kg). The mental arithmetic tests were performed post meridiem. The study showed the moderate physical workloads being of positive effect on the cognitive process efficiency in low-difficulty tasks, with the moderate-level workloads found to evoke the notably higher positive effects than the low-level ones. The high-difficulty task solving efficiency, on the contrary, was found to go down after the physical loads with the efficiency sags being proportionate to the workload rates. Therefore, it may be concluded that the effects of the physical loads on cognitive abilities are equally dependent on the load intensities and difficulty levels of the tasks solved.