(1) Background: Although a body of evidence demonstrates that acute exercise improves executive function, few studies have compared more complex, laboratory-based modes of exercise, such as soccer that involve multiple aspects of the environment. (2) Methods: Twelve experienced soccer players (24.8 ± 2 years) completed three counterbalanced 20 min sessions of (1) seated rest; (2) moderate intensity treadmill exercise; and (3) a game of futsal. Once heart rate returned to within 10% of pre-activity levels, participants completed the Stroop Color Word Conflict Task while reaction time (RT) and P300 event-related potentials were measured. (3) Results: Reaction time during Stroop performance was significantly faster following the futsal game and treadmill exercise compared to the seated rest. The P300 amplitude during Stroop performance was significantly greater following futsal relative to both treadmill and seated-rest conditions. (4) Conclusions: These findings suggest that single bouts of indoor soccer among college-aged soccer players, compared to treadmill and seated-rest conditions, may engender the greatest effect on brain networks controlling attention allocation and classification speed during the performance of an inhibitory control task. Future research is needed to determine if cognitively engaging forms of aerobic exercise may differentially impact executive control processes in less experienced and older adult participants.

With the rapid increase in the aging population, the prevalence of age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) has risen significantly, affecting over 55 million people worldwide in 2023, with projections suggesting this number will exceed 78 million by 2030 (Better, 2023). While much research has been focused on understanding and treating AD in older adults, there is growing emphasis on early interventions to prevent its onset (Crous-Bou et al., 2017;Dohm-Hansen et al., 2024). In this regard, middle-age has gained recognition as a critical period for the development and prevention of AD (Ritchie et al., 2017). For example, midlife vascular risk factors including diabetes, obesity, and hypertension increased the risk of developing AD in late life (Livingston et al., 2020). This research topic includes eight human and rodent studies, including three review papers, exploring strategies to reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline and mechanisms of age-related memory decline in middle-aged individuals, older adults with normal cognition, those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and those with AD.Exercise InterventionIn their review such as personality traits and molecular signaling as well as vascular health playing critical roles in 107 cognitive decline and adaptation (Gogniat et al., 2020;Won, Gogniat, et al., 2025;Won, Tomoto, et 108 al., 2025). Moving forward, future research should focus on elucidating the underlying mechanisms 109 that link midlife risk factors to late-life cognitive outcomes 110 J.W. drafted the paper and J.W., M.G., T.K., and K.N. edited the paper. All authors reviewed, revised, 115 and approved the final manuscript. 116Funding 117This study was supported by the American Heart Association (25POST1366119). 118

Backgrounds: It remains to be determined whether visual stimuli during exercise differentially influence the attention process. The purpose of the present study was to examine if different color stimuli during aerobic exercise are associated with different attention processes. Methods: 22 college students completed a four 30-min running session during the presentation of different color stimuli (blue, green, red, and yellow) and without color stimulus on separate visits. The Kanizsa triangle task was administrated before and immediately after exercise to assess the attention process. Behavioral performance (accuracy and response time (RT)) and event-related potential (P2, N2b and P3a) were recorded during the test. Results: Valid/invalid cue RT during the Kaniza test performance was significantly faster following the presentation of color stimuli during treadmill exercise compared to the seated rest. During exercise, these changes were larger after green and yellow stimuli than red in invalid cue RT. P2, N2b and P3a amplitudes of green were significantly larger than the other colors for both valid and invalid cues. Red color showed the lowest P2 and P3a amplitudes for both valid and invalid cues among colors. Conclusion: The distinctive neurocognitive changes during aerobic exercise suggest different effects of color stimuli on visual search attention, attention capture, attentional orienting and processing speed. This study will be a first step to understand the optimal environmental setting during exercise for subsequent improvements in the attention process.

The objective of this study was to understand the associations of sleep and cardiorespiratory fitness with hippocampal volume and global cognition among older adults (n = 30, age = 65.8 years, female = 73.3%). Wrist actigraphy provided objective measures of nighttime sleep including sleep duration, average wake bout length (WBL; sleep disturbance), and wake-to-sleep transition probability (WTSP; sleep consolidation). Cardiorespiratory fitness was quantified via cycle exercise using a modified heart rate recovery approach. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine hippocampal volume and the Mini-Mental State Examination was used to assess global cognition. Fitness moderated associations of sleep with hippocampal volume and cognitive performance, whereby the association of WBL—an index of poor sleep—with hippocampal atrophy was stronger among less-fit individuals, and the association of sleep duration with cognitive performance was stronger among more-fit individuals. Across the fitness levels, a longer WBL was associated with lower cognitive performance, and a higher WTSP—an index of more consolidated sleep—was associated with greater hippocampal volume. Sleep and fitness were unrelated to the volume of an amygdala control region, suggesting a degree of neuroanatomical specificity. In conclusion, higher cardiorespiratory fitness may attenuate sleep disturbance-related hippocampal atrophy and magnify the cognitive benefits of good sleep. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.