Executive Functions During Submaximal Exercises in Male Athletes: Role of Blood Lactate

Marinella Coco; Andrea Buscemi; Paolo Cavallari; Simona Massimino; Sergio Rinella; Marta Maria Tortorici; Tiziana Maci; Vincenzo Perciavalle; Matej Tusak; Donatella Di Corrado; Valentina Perciavalle; Agata Zappalà

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.537922

Executive Functions During Submaximal Exercises in Male Athletes: Role of Blood Lactate

Front Psychol. 2020 Oct 30:11:537922. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.537922. eCollection 2020.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
² Study Center of Italian Osteopathy, Catania and Horus Social Cooperative, Catania, Italy.
³ Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
⁴ Alzheimer's and Psychogeriatrics Center, Mental Health Department, ASP, Catania, Italy.
⁵ Faculty of Human and Society Sciences, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy.
⁶ Department of Social and Humanistic Sciences in Sport at Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
⁷ Department of Education Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.

Abstract

The present study was carried out among 20 healthy young male athletes to determine whether aerobic exercise performed at two different intensities is able to affect executive functions. For this purpose, we used the Stroop Color Word Test (SCWT) to evaluate the ability to inhibit cognitive interference and the Trail Making Test (TMT) to assess organized visual search, set shifting, and cognitive flexibility. Simple Reaction Time (RT), as a measure of perception and response execution, was also evaluated. The experimental protocol included the measure of blood lactate levels with the aim of assessing possible relations between lactate blood values and selected executive functions after a 30-min steady-state test performed at 60% and at 80% of VO_2max. The results showed that a 30-min aerobic exercise is not associated with a worsening of executive functions as long as the blood lactate levels stay within the 4 mmol/l threshold.

Keywords: blood lactate; executive function; man; sport; submaximal exercise.