Want Better Test Scores? Try Jumping Jacks Beforehand

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Kids’ academic test scores might improve if they boost their brain power with some high-intensity exercise before picking up a pen, a new pilot study says.

Children had significantly higher test scores after they spent nine minutes performing high-knee walking, jumping jacks, lunges, and squats, researchers report in the journal Psychology of Sport & Exercise.

“Physical education and physical activity are good for our rising generation,” said lead researcher Eric Drollette, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “It’s good for mental health. It’s good for brain health. It’s good for academic achievement.”

In the study, researchers had 25 kids between 9 and  12 years of age take an academic test after performing high-intensity exercises or taking a seated rest break.

“In the classroom, you have teachers that say, ‘Let’s take a movement break to get you focused again,’ ” Drollette said in a news release. “We know that’s the case anecdotally in the classroom, but we hadn’t put the science to it.”

The children scored significantly better on a standardized test measuring verbal comprehension following high-intensity interval exercise, compared to when they rested, results show.

Brain readings revealed that the children who performed the interval exercises also had lower levels of error-related negativity (ERN), a type of electrical brain activity that occurs when a person makes a mistake.

High levels of ERN are associated with mental distraction because they show that people have become fixated on an error, reducing their focus and performance, researchers said.

“This research provides us with valuable insights into the potential for a single short period of exercise to benefit children’s cognitive performance,” senior researcher Jennifer Etnier, a professor of kinesiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, said in a news release.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/want-better-test-scores-try-jumping-jacks-beforehand-study-says