The impact of virtual reality acute aerobic exercise on the inhibitory control function of anxious college students:...

Anxiety and the associated impairment of inhibitory control functions are common issues affecting the mental health and cognitive efficiency of college students. With the development of digital technology, virtual reality (VR) provides immersive and highly motivating environments for exercise intervention, potentially enhancing the improvement effect of exercise on emotions and cognition. However, the impact of combining VR with acute aerobic exercise on the inhibitory control functions of anxious college students and its neural mechanism remain unclear. This study aims to explore the intervention effect of VR acute aerobic exercise on the anxiety and inhibitory control functions of college students, and uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy imaging (fNIRS) technology to reveal its neural mechanism from the perspective of cerebral blood flow dynamics.

75 anxious college students were recruited and randomly divided into the control group, the traditional cycling group, and the VR cycling group, with 25 participants in each group. The control group sat quietly for 30 min, the traditional cycling group cycled on a fixed bicycle for 30 min at a moderate intensity, and the VR cycling group cycled in an immersive environment while wearing VR equipment with the same exercise load and duration. Before and after the intervention, the SAI was used to assess anxiety, the Stroop task was used to measure inhibitory control functions, and fNIRS was used to collect hemodynamic signals of the frontal lobe brain regions in the resting state and task state.

(1) The anxiety scores of the VR cycling group and the cycling group after the intervention were significantly lower than those of the control group (P < 0.001), and the anxiety score of the VR cycling group was significantly lower than that of the cycling group (P < 0.001); (2) The correct rate of the Stroop task in the VR cycling group was significantly higher than that of the cycling group and the control group (P < 0.001), and the reaction time was significantly shorter than that of the cycling group and the control group (P < 0.001). (3) fNIRS data showed that the hemodynamic activation levels of the L-DLPFC and R-DLPFC in the VR cycling group were significantly higher than those of the cycling group and the control group (P < 0.001), and the activation in this brain region in the cycling group was also significantly higher than that of the control group (L-DLPFC: P < 0.001; R-DLPFC:P = 0.014). (4) Correlation analysis showed that the anxiety scores of the cycling group and the VR cycling group were negatively correlated with the activation of L-DLPFC and R-DLPFC (P < 0.05). The correct rate of the Stroop task was positively correlated with the activation of the above brain regions (P < 0.05), and the reaction time was negatively correlated with the activation of the brain regions (P < 0.05).

Following an immersive VR session of acute aerobic exercise, anxiety levels among anxious college students decreased significantly, and their inhibitory control performance on the Stroop task was significantly better than that of the traditional cycling group and the control group. The behavioral gains were positively correlated with increased activation in the DLPFC. Exploratory fNIRS data suggest that this effect may be related to the enhanced activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, but this neural mechanism conclusion needs to be verified in future studies through more sophisticated technical approaches.