Aerobic Exercise

This pilot study, using a modified single systems design, attempted to answer the question: what effect does an occupational therapy aerobic exercise program have on adolescents with depression? The sample was comprised of four adolescent boys from a private psychiatric hospital. Their ages ranged from 12 to 18 years and all had a primary diagnosis of major depression. The program consisted of brisk walking and running. It met three times a week for one hour over a 65 day period. Each session started with a warm-up of five minutes of slow walking followed by ten minutes of stretching. During each session a subject was randomly assigned to wear a heart rate monitor. The monitor was used to insure the subject exercised within a target zone of 70 to 80 percent of his maximum heart rate. The length of the walk/run phase was increased from 10 to 15 to 20 minutes only when the subjects felt comfortable exercising for longer periods of time. The last phase was a warmdown of five minutes of slow walking followed by ten minutes of stretching. Discussions about the activity and the boys' lives were included in the program. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (Beck 1961) was used to measure depression levels because of its sound psychometric properties and because of its frequent use in other research studies to assess depression. The BDI was administered five times; as a pretest on the initial meeting, as a re-test after 29 days of the program, as a second re-test after 50 days of the program, as a third re-test after 65 days of the program, and 45 days after the program ended. These data were used to measure changes in depression throughout the program. The results from the BDI showed a general decrease in depression scores for all subjects. Due to the small number of subjects and data points, the results were considered to be preliminary.     

Aerobic Exercise Enhances Cognitive Flexibility

Introduction Physical activity is believed to prevent cognitive decline and may enhance frontal lobe activity. Methods Subjects were 91 healthy adults enrolled in a wellness center. Over a 10 week intervention, controls were aerobically active 0–2 days per week. Half the intervention group was active 3–4 days/week and half 5–7 days/week. Outcome measures included memory, mental speed, reaction time, attention, and cognitive flexibility. Results Neurocognitive data were analyzed by repeated measures comparing minimal aerobic exercise (the control group) to moderate aerobic exercise (3–4 days/week), and to high aerobic exercise (5–7 days/week). Initial analyses noted significant improvements in mental speed (p = .03), attention (p = .047), and cognitive flexibility (p = .002). After controlling for age, gender, education, and changes in psychomotor speed, only cognitive flexibility still showed significant improvements (p = .02). Conclusion Over a 10 week period, increasing frequency of aerobic activity was shown to be associated with enhanced cognitive performance, in particular cognitive flexibility, a measure of executive function.     

The Effects of Acute Aerobic Exercise on the Primary Motor Cortex

ABSTRACT. The effect of aerobic exercise on primary motor cortical excitability is a relevant area of interest for both motor learning and motor rehabilitation. Transient excitability changes that may follow an exercise session are a necessary precursor to more lasting neuroplastic changes. While the number of studies is limited, research suggests that a session of aerobic exercise can create an ideal environment for the early induction of plasticity. Potential mechanisms include the upregulation of neurotransmitter activity, altered cerebral metabolism and cortisol levels, and increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor. While there is considerable evidence that chronic physical activity positively impacts brain health and function, studies examining cortical excitability changes and motor performance after a single session of exercise are lacking. Further research is required to determine the clinical utility and feasibility of aerobic exercise.     

不同强度短时有氧运动对执行功能的影响

探讨短时有氧运动对执行功能的影响是否与运动强度和性别有关, 为从运动强度和性别角度选择合理的有氧运动干预方案改善执行功能提供基础。研究采用混合设计, 选取30名大学生(男女人数各半), 使用功率自行车实施30分钟的不同强度有氧运动, 使用Flanker任务、2-back任务和数字More-odd shifting任务分别测查被试基线、小强度短时有氧运动、中强度短时有氧运动和大强度短时有氧运动后执行功能的抑制、刷新和转换三个子功能的变化, 结果表明：不同强度的短时有氧运动对执行功能产生选择性的积极影响, 且不随性别变化而改变。     

Creative Potential and Multicultural Experiences: The Mediating Role of Creative Self-Efficacy

In two studies, one in Mexico and another one in Germany, we examined the indirect influence of self-reported multicultural experience on creative potential, through its influence on creative self-efficacy, and its direct influence on creative personal identity. In both studies, business students from Mexico and Germany completed a battery of questionnaires assessing creative self-efficacy (with two different operationalizations), creative personal identity, multicultural experiences, and a divergent thinking task designed to generate ideas to solve two different business problems. Structural equation modeling was used to test our hypotheses. Results from both studies found a positive relationship between self-reported multicultural experiences and creative personal identity. Similarly, multicultural experiences had an indirect, positive relationship with originality scores from a divergent thinking task, through its influence on creative self-efficacy. Hence, the positive influence of multicultural experience on creative potential, through creative self-efficacy, was established in two countries and with different operationalizations, trait like versus state like, of creative self-efficacy. The implications of the results were discussed.     

Bicultural Effects on the Creative Potential of Chinese and French Children

This study examined possible bicultural effects on creative potential of children in four groups of Chinese and French children in Hong Kong and Paris. An international battery of widely used divergent measures (Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests; WKCT) and newly constructed divergent-plus-integrative measures (Evaluation of Potential Creativity; EPoC) was established for assessment. Study 1 showed that most measures of WKCT and EPoC were reasonably high in reliability and they had expected correlations with the fluency scores of some subtests of Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Study 2 found some interestingly mixed bicultural effects favoring verbal divergent responses for French children and graphic integrative responses for Chinese children. Compared with Paris-French children, the bicultural Hong Kong-French children had significantly higher scores in figural fluency, figural flexibility, and figural uniqueness of WKCT (requiring only verbal divergent responses) but significantly lower scores in the graphic divergent-exploratory measure of EPoC. Compared with Hong Kong-Chinese children, the bicultural Paris-Chinese children had significantly higher scores in the graphic convergent-integrative measure of EPoC, but significantly lower scores in verbal fluency, verbal flexibility, figural fluency, figural flexibility, figural uniqueness, and figural unusualness of WKCT. Implications of the mixed bicultural effects in relation to the diverse creativity measures and children groups are discussed.     

Interactive Effects of Multicultural Experiences and Openness to Experience on Creative Potential

Extensiveness of multicultural experiences and Openness to Experience were used to predict European American undergraduates' performance on two measures of creative potential: (a) generation of unusual uses of garbage bags and (b) retrieval of nonprototypical or normatively inaccessible exemplars in the conceptual domain of occupation. The results showed that having extensive multicultural experiences predicted better performance on both measures of creative potential only among participants who were open to experience. Among those who were not open, having more extensive multicultural experiences was associated with a lower level of creative potential. Implications of these findings for promoting creativity in schools are discussed.     

Personality Characteristics Associated With Aerobic Exercise in Adult Females

Using an index of aerobic conditioning 27 adult female joggers and 25 nonexercisers were identified. During individual interviews with each subject basic demographic data were obtained and blood pressure, vital capacity, resting pulse rate, and body fat were meaSured. All subjects completed Form A of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). Statistically significant differences occurred on two primary factors, and one secondary dimension of the 16PF. The probability of three marginally significant differences out of 24 comparisons is well within the range of expected chance fluctuation. Thus, the study provided no evidence that personality characteristics are predisposing factors in the adoption of an aerobic jogging program by young adult females. The only statistically significant training effect was lower pulse rate; blood pressure, vital Capacity, and body fat were similar for the two groups. Finally, the results of this study of females were compared to those of a previous investigation of male joggers.     

Enhancing Creative Performance: Effects of Expected Developmental Assessment Strategies and Creative Personality

This study examined the independent and joint effects of expected developmental assessment strategies (self-administered, other-administered, and no assessment) and creative personality on individuals' creative performance. Data were collected from 68 participants who performed a role-playing task in a laboratory setting. Results showed that individuals exhibited the highest creative performance when they expected a self-administered assessment (i.e., an opportunity to assess their own work in order to develop their creativity-relevant skills) and had creative personalities.     

化疗后不同时间有氧运动对乳腺癌癌因性疲乏的影响

探讨化疗后不同时间运动干预对乳腺癌癌因性疲乏的影响.将60例行根治术并完成第二周期化疗,接受第三周期化疗的乳腺癌患者随机分为四组,每组15人,对照组行医院常规护理;试验组分为A、B、C三组,除常规护理外按护士制定的有氧运动干预方式分别于化疗后第1天、化疗后第3天,化疗结束后规律锻炼.使用修订的Piper疲乏量表(RPFS)对四组患者在化疗前2天、化疗后第1天(运动干预之前)和化疗后21天进行评估.结果化疗前2天四组RPFS得分均无差异(P＞0.05),化疗后21天对照组RPFS得分均高于试验组,试验C组RPFS得分高于试验A、B组.因此,化疗后及早活动能有效缓解患者的癌因性疲乏.     

Energizing The Creative Potential in Future Engineers

ABSTRACT Three agents needed for energizing the creative process in future engineers are realistic challenge, creative involvement, and relevant constraints. Two conditions for continuing the reaction are a reservoir of knowledge and experience, and an integrated conceptual framework. Curricula and courses can be structured to emphasize these agents and conditions.     

The Effects of a Verbal and a Figural Creativity Training on Different Facets of Creative Potential

This study investigated the effects of different types of creativity interventions on different facets of creative potential, also including more school-related creativity demands. In a sample of 77 fourth-graders in the age between 9 and 12 years, we administered a verbal and a figural creativity training, realized in two school lessons over two consecutive days each. As outcome measures, creative potential in both the verbal and the figural domain by means of two well-established divergent thinking tasks was assessed. As additional measures of creative potential, a story completion task and a picture painting task were administered to examine training effects on more school-related types of creative behavior. The verbal training was found to increase both verbal and figural divergent thinking ability, but not creative potential in the story completion and the picture painting task. The figural training yielded significant training effects only regarding the picture painting task. Findings suggest a specific training effect of the figural creativity training, and moreover indicate that the verbal creativity training, rather than stimulating “verbal” creative abilities per se, was more strongly concerned with domain-general creativity processes including ideational fluency, flexibility, and originality that are characteristics of divergent thinking tasks across different domains.     

Right Hemispheric Dominance of Creative Insight: An Event-Related Potential Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the hemispheric effect of creative insight. This study used high-density ERPs to record participants' brain activity while they performed an insight task. Results showed that both insight solutions and incomprehension solutions elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N320～550) than noninsight solutions in the time window of 320～550 msec. Scalp ERPs and topographical maps revealed that the insight N320～550 exhibited a relative RH dominance, whereas the incomprehension N320～550 exhibited a relative midline dominance. Dipole source analysis showed that the generator of N320～550 elicited by insight and incomprehension solutions was localized in the right middle frontal gyrus and the right parahippocampus gyrus, respectively. These distinct spatiotemporal patterns involved in insight processing and incomprehension processing suggest that the observed N320～550 might reflect the processing of set-shift and the formation of novel associations. Moreover, the spatiotemporal pattern of brain activation associated with insight solutions supported the idea that the right hemispheric dominance theory of creative thinking also applies to creative insight.