A single bout of aerobic exercise improves executive function; however, the mechanism for the improvement remains unclear. One proposal asserts that an exercise-mediated increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) enhances the efficiency of executive-related cortical structures. Here, participants completed separate 10-min sessions of moderate to heavy intensity aerobic exercise, a hypercapnic environment (i.e., 5% CO₂), and a non-exercise and non-hypercapnic control condition. The hypercapnic condition was included because it produces an increase in CBF independent of metabolic demands. An estimate of CBF was achieved via transcranial doppler ultrasound and near-infrared spectroscopy that provided measures of middle cerebral artery blood velocity (BV) and deoxygenation (HHb), respectively. Exercise intensity was adjusted to match participant-specific change in BV and HHb associated with the hypercapnic condition. Executive function was assessed prior to and after each session via antisaccades (i.e., saccade mirror-symmetrical to a target) because the task is mediated via the same executive networks that demonstrate task-dependent modulation following single- and chronic-bouts of aerobic exercise. Results showed that hypercapnic and exercise conditions were associated with comparable BV and HHb changes, whereas the control condition did not produce a change in either metric. In terms of antisaccade performance, the exercise and hypercapnic - but not control - conditions demonstrated improved post-condition reaction times (RT), and the magnitude of the hypercapnic and exercise-based increase in estimated CBF was reliably related to the post-condition improvement in RT. Accordingly, results evince that an increase in CBF represents a reliable candidate for a post-exercise improvement in executive function.

中文翻译：

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脑血流量增加支持单次运动后对执行功能的益处：来自高碳酸血症的证据。

一次有氧运动可改善执行功能；然而，改善的机制仍不清楚。一项提议声称，运动介导的脑血流量 (CBF) 增加可提高与执行相关的皮层结构的效率。在这里，参与者分别完成了 10 分钟的中等强度至高强度有氧运动、高碳酸血症环境（即 5% CO ₂)，以及非运动和非高碳酸血症的控制条件。包括高碳酸血症条件是因为它会产生独立于代谢需求的 CBF 增加。CBF 的估计是通过经颅多普勒超声和近红外光谱实现的，它们分别提供了大脑中动脉血流速度 (BV) 和脱氧 (HHb) 的测量值。调整运动强度以匹配与高碳酸血症相关的参与者特定的 BV 和 HHb 变化。执行功能在每次会话之前和之后通过 antisaccades（即，与目标镜像对称）进行评估，因为任务是通过相同的执行网络介导的，这些网络在单次和长期有氧运动后表现出依赖于任务的调制。结果表明，高碳酸血症和运动条件与可比的 BV 和 HHb 变化相关，而对照条件在任何一个指标上都没有产生变化。在抗眼跳表现方面，运动和高碳酸血症 - 但不是控制 - 条件显示出改善的后条件反应时间（RT），并且估计CBF的高碳酸血症和基于运动的增加的幅度与后条件改善可靠相关在 RT。因此，结果表明 CBF 的增加代表了运动后执行功能改善的可靠候选者。运动和高碳酸血症 - 但不是控制 - 条件显示出改善的条件后反应时间（RT），并且高碳酸血症和基于运动的估计 CBF 增加的幅度与 RT 的条件后改善可靠相关。因此，结果表明 CBF 的增加代表了运动后执行功能改善的可靠候选者。运动和高碳酸血症 - 但不是控制 - 条件显示出改善的条件后反应时间（RT），并且高碳酸血症和基于运动的估计 CBF 增加的幅度与 RT 的条件后改善可靠相关。因此，结果表明 CBF 的增加代表了运动后执行功能改善的可靠候选者。