The association between aerobic fitness and language processing in children: Implications for academic achievement

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) have been instrumental for discerning the relationship between children’s aerobic fitness and aspects of cognition, yet language processing remains unexplored. ERPs linked to the processing of semantic information (the N400) and the analysis of language structur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain and cognition 2014-06, Vol.87 (Jun), p.140-152
Main Authors: Scudder, Mark R., Federmeier, Kara D., Raine, Lauren B., Direito, Artur, Boyd, Jeremy K., Hillman, Charles H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - growth & development
Brain - physiology
Child
Educational psychology
Educational Status
ERP
Exercise
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
N400
P600
Physical Fitness
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure
Reading
Semantic processing
Semantics
Syntactic processing
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Summary:Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) have been instrumental for discerning the relationship between children’s aerobic fitness and aspects of cognition, yet language processing remains unexplored. ERPs linked to the processing of semantic information (the N400) and the analysis of language structure (the P600) were recorded from higher and lower aerobically fit children as they read normal sentences and those containing semantic or syntactic violations. Results revealed that higher fit children exhibited greater N400 amplitude and shorter latency across all sentence types, and a larger P600 effect for syntactic violations. Such findings suggest that higher fitness may be associated with a richer network of words and their meanings, and a greater ability to detect and/or repair syntactic errors. The current findings extend previous ERP research explicating the cognitive benefits associated with greater aerobic fitness in children and may have important implications for learning and academic performance.
ISSN:0278-2626
1090-2147
DOI:10.1016/j.bandc.2014.03.016