Arthur F Kramer

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | UIUC · Department of Psychology

Acknowledging the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting, this study examined the effects of an acute exercise break during prolonged sitting on executive function, cortical hemodynamics, and microvascular status. In this randomized crossover study, 71 college students completed three conditions: (i) uninterrupted sitting (SIT); (ii) SIT with a 1...

Driving is challenging for older adults, especially those with cognitive impairments. This paper systematically reviewed 39 peer-reviewed studies to examine the impact of cognitive deficits on older adults’ driving abilities, focusing on the discussion of neuropsychological assessments including Trail Making Tests, Useful Field of View, Maze Test,...

Background The study aimed to validate the Cravings for Rest and Volitional Energy Expenditure (CRAVE) scale among Chinese adults with different health conditions (healthy control, chronic illnesses, and psychiatric disorders) and skill levels (athletes vs. non-athletes). Methods In Study 1, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using the Maximum L...

Purpose : Today’s children are increasingly inactive, with >50% not meeting the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity (PA). Recent reports suggest scores in reading and mathematics have also declined. Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that can be used to simulate real-world scenarios, like classroom learning. This study investigated...

Objective: This study investigated the impact of a comprehensive cognitive training program on dual-task performance (DTP) in low -active but generally healthy middle-aged adults, with DTP serving as an indicator of aging and neurocognitive decline.Methods: A total of 233 mid-life adults (average age = 46.73, 65.7% females) were randomly assigned t...

Higher cardiorespiratory fitness has been associated with improved cognitive control in preadolescent children, with various studies highlighting related brain health benefits. This cross-sectional study aimed to provide novel insights into the fitness-cognition relationship by investigating task-related changes in effective connectivity within two...

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the incidence of adverse events (AE) in older adults participating in a year-long exercise intervention, investigating potential dose-response relationships between exercise intensity and AE frequency, and identifying demographic factors associated with AE risk. Methods: A total of 648 older adults were randomize...

There is evidence that complex relationships exist between motor functions, brain structure, and cognitive functions, particularly in the aging population. However, whether such relationships observed in older adults could extend to young adults remains to be elucidated. Thus, the current study addressed this gap in the literature by investigating...

The motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR) is a syndrome characterized by subjective memory complaints and slow walking speeds that can identify older adults at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia (ADRD). To date, the feasibility of community-based physical activity (PA) programs for improving outcomes in MCR have...

Motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR) is a pre‐dementia syndrome characterized by subjective memory complaints and gait impairments that may be related to lower prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. Acute bouts of aerobic exercise are shown to improve PFC function, however, the acute effects of exercise on PFC oxygenation have not yet been examined in...

Team-based physical activity (PA) can improve social cognition; however, few studies have investigated the neurobiological mechanism underlying this benefit. Accordingly, a hyper-scanning protocol aimed to determine whether the interbrain synchrony (IBS) is influenced by an acute bout of team-based PA (i.e., tandem rope skipping). Specifically, we...

Introduction Children's anxiety is associated with decreased cognitive performance. One well-established behavioral intervention to transiently improve cognitive performance in children is acute aerobic exercise (AAE). Thus far, however, it is unclear whether the benefits of AAE on cognition vary based on individual differences in children's anxiet...

Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is crucial for brain health, and exercise has been shown to boost its levels. However, the impact of exercise on BDNF on apparently healthy participants, studied exclusively through randomized controlled trials (RCTs), remains unclear. We conducted a systematic-review and multilevel meta-analyses...

Research on physical activity and health, including planned and structured forms such as acute and chronic physical exercise, has focused on understanding potential dose-response relationships. Traditionally, the variables of (i) Frequency, (ii) Intensity, (iii) Time, (iv) and Type (known as the FITT principle) have been used to operationalize the...

BACKGROUND A single bout of aerobic exercise can provide acute benefits to cognition and emotion in children. Yet, little is known about how acute exercise may impact children’s underlying brain networks’ resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). OBJECTIVE Using a data-driven multivariate pattern analysis, we investigated the effects of a sing...

Background: This study examined the prevalence of meeting 24-h movement behavior (24-HMB: physical activity [PA], screen time [ST], and sleep duration [SL]) guidelines in U.S. children and adolescents (youth) with prescribed eyeglasses/contact lenses and anxiety, followed by an investigation on its associated prevalence across specific demographic...

Background The relationship of cognition and the 24-hour activity cycles (24-HAC), encompassing physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep, in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) remains uncertain. Distinct combinations of 24-HAC behaviours can characterize unique activity profiles and influence cognition. We aimed to character...

Background Meeting 24-hour movement behaviors (24-HMB: physical activity [PA], screen time [ST], and sleep [SL]) recommendations may be associated with positive health outcomes among youth with specific mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental (MBD) conditions. However, temporal trends and disparities in meeting 24-HMB guidelines in these higher-...

Higher levels of physical activity are known to benefit aspects of brain health across the lifespan. However, the role of sedentary behavior (SB) is less well understood. In this review we summarize and discuss evidence on the role of SB on brain health (including cognitive performance, structural or functional brain measures, and dementia risk) fo...

The accelerating digital health landscape, coupled with the proliferation of wearable devices and advanced neuroimaging, offers an unprecedented avenue to develop precision interventions for enhancing physical activity in aging. This approach requires deep baseline phenotyping to match older adults with the intervention poised to yield maximal heal...

Background: Physical activity has been associated with better cognitive function and better sleep quality. Yet, whether the beneficial effect of physical activity on cognitive function can be explained by an indirect pathway involving better sleep quality is unclear. Objective: To investigate whether sleep quality mediates the association between p...

As the emerging treatments that target grey matter pathology in Alzheimer's Disease have limited effectiveness, there is a critical need to identify new neural targets for treatments. White matter's (WM) metabolic vulnerability makes it a promising candidate for new interventions. This study examined the age and sex differences in estimates of axon...

Background: Emerging evidence points towards the psychological benefits of meeting 24-hour movement behavior (24-HMB) guidelines, but such associations have not yet been investigated among children and adolescents of prescribed eyeglasses/contact lenses. To this end, we examined associations of meeting 24-HMB guidelines with internalizing and exter...

Background Physical Activity, sleep, and mood are key modifiable lifestyle behaviours that are individually associated with lower cognitive decline [1]. Prior research suggests there may be a tridirectionally relationship among these three behaviours. The temporal relationship among these behaviours is unknown. Using an Ecological Momentary Assessm...

White matter integrity shows age-related declines in later life. Studies have found altered topological changes of white matter networks in healthy aging populations. We investigated cross-sectional association between white matter network topology, age, education, and cognition in older adults at high-risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A total of...

The implementation of China ’ s three-child fertility policy has led to a notable increase in multiple-childfamilies. Notably, firstborn children experience a significant transition from being an only child to a non-onlychild. This transition is associated with problematic behaviors, affecting their social adjustment, siblingrelationships, and fami...

Previous research has indicated that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is structurally and functionally neuroprotective in older adults. However, questions remain regarding the mechanistic role of CRF on cognitive and brain health. The purposes of this study were to investigate if higher pre‐intervention CRF was associated with greater change in func...

This study was conducted to examine the relationships among physical activity, perceived social support and hope in the group of rural left-behind children. It was found that physical activity can not only directly and positively predict the level of hope in rural left-behind children. It can also indirectly predict their sense of hope through perc...

Objective: To investigate whether a 20-week aerobic and resistance exercise program induces changes in brain current density underlying working memory and inhibitory control in children with overweight/obesity. Methods: A total of 67 children (10.00 ± 1.10 years) were randomized into an exercise or control group. Electroencephalography (EEG)-bas...

Did you know that exercise may help your brain work better? Scientists are studying how kids’ brains respond to exercise and how physical activity may help kids learn better in school. Using equipment that can help them to see the structure and function of the brain, scientists can measure and record what the brain is doing while kids engage in tas...

Background: 24-h movement behavior (24-HMB) guidelines suggest that children and adolescents should limit screen time (ST), get an adequate amount of sleep (SL), and engage in a sufficient amount of physical activity (PA) to ensure optimal health. However, it is not fully understood how adherence to these 24-HMB guidelines apply specifically to vis...

The association between cognitive training and exercise motivation remains unclear, particularly when the training is not explicitly focused on modifying goal content. Our study investigated the impact of such training on exercise-related decision-making skills among a sample of low-active adults (N = 233; Mage = 46.7 years) who completed the Exerc...

Background: The Canadian 24-hour movement behavior (24-HMB) guidelines recommend an adequate level of physical activity (PA), a limited amount of screen time (ST), and a sufficient sleep duration (SLP) to promote the healthy development of children. Although the positive effects of adhering to the 24-HMB guidelines have been established for severa...

Social support is a crucial factor that can facilitate regular engagement in physical activity. To assess the influence of social factors on the level of regular physical activity, the Physical Activity and Social Support Scale (PASSS) has been developed. However, the PASSS has yet to be validated in a Chinese sample of established adults. To addre...

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of conditions that affects ∼25% of the global population, including excess adiposity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and elevated blood pressure. MetS is one of major risk factors not only for chronic diseases, but also for dementia and cognitive dysfunction, although the underlying mechanisms remain poorly unde...

A significant portion of emerging adults do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity (PA). Previous studies observed associations between features of emerging adulthood and PA levels, while the potential psychological mechanisms that might explain this phenomenon are not fully understood. In this context, there is some evidence that situ...

It is well-documented in the literature that high levels of regular physical activity (PA), low levels of sedentary behavior (SB), and high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) are associated with superior cognitive functioning, especially with regard to older populations. However, concerning other age groups (e.g., preschoolers) the available...

Background: Carotenoids are plant pigments with light filtering and antioxidant properties that deposit in human tissues, including retina and skin. Descriptive characteristics and covariates of carotenoid status in macula and skin have been examined in adults; however, similar studies in children are limited. Thus, this study aimed to delineate h...

Alzheimer’s disease is currently the leading cause of dementia and one of the most expensive, lethal and severe diseases worldwide. Age-related decline in executive function is widespread and plays a key role in subsequent dementia risk. Physical exercise has been proposed as one of the leading non-pharmaceutical approaches to improve executive fun...

Humans use eye movements to build visual memories. We investigated how the contributions of specific viewing behaviors to memory formation evolve over individual study epochs. We used dyadic modeling to explain performance on a spatial reconstruction task based on interactions among two gaze measures: (a) the entropy of the scanpath and (b) the fre...

Affective exercise experience as an emerging theoretical concept has great potential to provide a more nuanced understanding of individual factors that influence exercise behavior. However, concerning the Affective Exercise Experiences (AFFEXX) questionnaire, it has not been examined yet whether the structural score of the AFFEXX is a useful index...

Prior research has demonstrated the importance of a healthy lifestyle to protect brain health and diminish dementia risk in later life. While a multidomain lifestyle provides an ecological perspective to voluntary engagement, its association with brain health is still under-investigated. Therefore, understanding the neural mechanisms underlying mul...

Purpose Aging is associated with a reduction in brain modularity as well as aspects of executive function, namely, updating, shifting, and inhibition. Previous research has suggested that the aging brain exhibits plasticity. Further, it has been hypothesized that broad-based intervention models may be more effective in eliciting overall gains in ex...

In the past 20 years, white matter (WM) microstructure has been studied predominantly using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Decreases in fractional anisotropy (FA) and increases in mean (MD) and radial diffusivity (RD) have been consistently reported in healthy aging and neurodegenerative diseases. To date, DTI parameters have been studied individu...

Purpose Increasing evidence suggests rural breast cancer survivors (BCS) may experience greater burden in symptoms known to be associated with cancer-associated cognitive decline (CACD). Yet, little is known about CACD in rural BCS. This study (1) examined differences in cognitive function, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and other C...

Background The Canadian 24-hour movement behavior (24-HMB) guidelines recommend an adequate level of physical activity (PA), a limited amount of screen time (ST), and sufficient sleep duration (SLP) to promote the healthy development of children. Although the positive effects of adhering to the 24-HMB guidelines have been established for several he...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease, is characterized by decreased memory and cognition, which are linked to degenerative changes in the brain. To assess whether white matter (WM) integrity is compromised in MCI, we collected diffusion-weighted images from 60 healthy older adults (OA) (69.16 ± 0.7) and 20 older...

Highlights 1. Meeting the combination of all three 24-HMB guidelines, or a combination of screen time and physical activity, was associated with reduced odds of serious difficulties in concentrating, remembering, or making decisions. 2. Meeting the combination of all three 24-HMB guidelines was associated with reduced odds of difficulties making an...

Introduction The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 Revised (SATAQ-4R) has been widely used in Western countries to link body appearance that is related to eating disorders and body dissatisfaction being commonly reported by adolescents. However, a comprehensive psychometric validation of the SATAQ-4R in Chinese adolescent s...

Introduction: There is a growing interest in understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that can explain the positive effects of physical activity and fitness on measures of cognitive performance. As eye-based measures (e.g., eye movement measures such as saccades, pupillary measures such as pupil dilation, and vascular measures such as retinal v...

EEG alpha power varies under many circumstances requiring visual attention. However, mounting evidence indicates that alpha may not only serve visual processing, but also the processing of stimuli presented in other sensory modalities, including hearing. We previously showed that alpha dynamics during an auditory task vary as a function of competit...

Emerging adulthood (EA) is a critical stage of life to develop and sustain a healthy lifestyle, but is also a time of vulnerability to poor physical and mental health outcomes. In this study, we conducted a path analysis (N = 1326) to examine associations among four dimensions of EA, levels of regular physical activity (PA), self-control, MPA tende...

Supervised personal training is most effective in improving the health effects of exercise in older adults. Yet, low frequency (60 min, 1–3 sessions/week) of trainer contact limits influence on behavior change outside sessions. Strategies to extend the effect of trainer contact outside of supervision and that integrate meaningful and intelligent tw...

Introduction The social and behavioral effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the health and physiology of most people, including those never diagnosed with COVID-19. While the impact of the pandemic has been felt across the lifespan, its effects on cardiorespiratory fitness (commonly considered a reflection of total body health) of older a...

Background Prolonged periods of sedentary behaviour, for instance, engendered by home confinement in Shenzhen city, has led to negative mental health consequences, especially in adolescents. Previous research suggests, in general, that sedentary behavior can increase negative emotions. However, the specific mechanism driving the relationship betwee...