Journal of Ergonomics
Open Access

Enhancements in Cognitive Control While Wearing Ergonomically Designed Core Stability Shorts

Abiola Akala^{* *}Correspondence: Abiola Akala, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria, Email:

Author info »

Description

The importance of postural control in enhancing performance and general health in daily life, work, and athletic endeavours is gaining attention. The enhancement of postural control via the use of methods like balance training appears to be an effective strategy to produce greater muscle activation during human locomotion. Postural control is one of the performance-limiting elements. The significance of core stability has been underlined in recent work in the field of sports training. The capacity to regulate the posture and movement of the trunk is referred to as core stability. While performing integrated sports activities, such control of the region immediately above the pelvis enables the best possible generation, transmission, and control of pressure and movement to the terminating segment of something like the spine.

Certain sportswear and equipment manufacturers now provide items to aid athletes in maintaining a proper posture while exercising due to the current focus on postural control, effective training, and enhanced performance. Particularly noteworthy are a few of the most recent sportswear innovations. As was already noted, there is much research on how important postural control is when participating in sports. The enhancement in cognitive function after aerobic exercise is also well-liked. In the current research, we explored the idea that athletic gear with a focus on core stability may improve cognitive performance after aerobic activity. Current research in cognitive neuroscience has shown that acute aerobic exercise has positive benefits on cognitive control utilizing behavioural indices reaction, and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). The capacity to coordinate thinking and action in accordance with internal goals is referred to as cognitive control. Working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition are regarded to be the primary mechanisms.

Using a modified flanker task to examine the effects of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive control, researchers discovered that in order to minimize interference in the task condition, more cognitive control was needed, as shown by changes in the scalprecorded P3 component of an ERP. The results of Hillman et al. have been confirmed by a number of ERP investigations. These studies show that the effects are selective and only occur in situations that call for an increase in cognitive control. Yet, other ERP investigations show that acute aerobic exercise has general, rather than specific, effects regardless of the task settings. As a result, the empirical data on how acute aerobic exercise affects cognitive control are still ambiguous. The majority of these earlier investigations concentrated more on the inhibitory than the working memory elements of cognitive control.

A modified Sternberg task was used to evaluate working memory performance. Participants had to encode a horizontal array of capital letters for this activity, and then they had to decide whether or not a single lowercase probing letter that was later shown appeared in the encoded array. With bigger set sizes in this scenario, greater cognitive control is required. Working memory utilizing the effects of acute aerobic and resistance exercise. They discovered a reduction in RT following aerobic exercise but not after strength training, indicating that the kind of exercise influences whether or not acute exercise impairs the cognitive control necessary for working memory. Moreover, shown that higher set sizes caused greater reductions in RT following aerobic activity.

Our study's initial objective was to expand and replicate prior results on the impacts of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive control by utilizing a modified Sternberg memory test. Because it is unclear how acute exercise affects memory functions, we concentrated on working memory function. Increased P3 amplitudes were seen in the training session compared to the rest session, despite the fact that neither reaction time nor response accuracy changed after a single bout of exercise. The second, and primary, goal of our study was to determine whether adding core stability by wearing specially made shorts will improve cognitive control and have a favorable effect. the core-supporting shorts group did, in fact, perform more accurately.