Cognitive effectiveness of high-intensity interval training for individuals with methamphetamine dependence: a study protocol for randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive deficit is a common syndrome of methamphetamine (MA) dependence. It is related to decision-making, control ability, and social functioning. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a training technique that requires people to work out at full intensity during a short period. Many studies have already shown the potential effects of HIIT on cognitive functions. The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the cognitive effects of HIIT on individuals with MA dependence. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A total of 240 individuals with MA dependence will be randomly assigned to the HIIT group, moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) group and control (CON) group. HIIT will consist of a 24-min HIIT exercise on a treadmill. MICT will consist of a 1-h body-mind exercise. CON will be their traditional intervention. The experimental period will be 12 months with 3 interventions weekly for the first 6 months and follow-up for the next 6 months. All subjects will be given cognitive tests at baseline, after intervention and at follow-up. Cognitive performances will be compared by a mixed-model analysis for repeated measures. DISCUSSION: HIIT training may reduce illicit drug cravings amongst individuals with MA dependence; hence, HIIT may have a good effect on the cognitive functions, such as memory and executive function, of individuals with MA dependence. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000032492 . Registered on April 30, 2020 ( http://www.chictr.org.cn/edit.aspx?pid=52127&htm=4 ).

Effects of Tai Chi on the Executive Function and Physical Fitness of Female Methamphetamine Dependents: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: Exercise improves the health and mental status of drug dependents. The way by which Tai Chi (TC) as a special exercise treatment affects executive functions (EFs) of methamphetamine (MA) dependents is yet to be established. This study aimed to explore the effects of TC on the EFs and physical fitness of MA dependents. Methods: A total of 76 female MA dependents were randomly assigned to the exercise and control groups. The exercise group underwent three 60-min sessions of TC training per week for 12 weeks. The control group was trained with conventional exercises including the 9th Guang Bo Ti Cao and square dance. Physical fitness and EF assessments that evaluated inhibitory control (IC, go/no-go task), working memory (3-back task) and cognitive flexibility (switching task) were performed at baseline and at 12 weeks. A repeated-measures ANOVA was applied to analyze the differences of group and time. Results: The exercise group showed decreased response time (RT) with a significant main effect of time on the go/no-go task [F (1, 68) = 9.6, p < 0.05]. The interaction effect between time and group was significant on accuracy [F (1, 61) = 4.73, p < 0.05], and the main effect of time was significant on RT [F (1, 61) = 4.66, p < 0.05] in the 3-back task of the exercise group. Significant changes in BMI [F (1, 68) = 19.57, p < 0.05], vital capacity [F (1, 68) = 6.00, p < 0.05], and systolic blood pressure [F (1, 68) = 6.11, p < 0.05] were observed in the exercise group. Conclusion: These findings showed that 3 months of TC training can improve the IC and maintain the working memory and cognitive flexibility of MA dependents. Other data implied that TC may improve the physical fitness of MA dependents. Clinical Trial Registration: http://www.chictr.org.cn/, ChiCTR1900022091.

The influence of the cross-modal emotional pre-preparation effect on audiovisual integration.

Previous studies have shown that the cross-modal pre-preparation effect is an important factor for audiovisual integration. However, the facilitating influence of the pre-preparation effect on the integration of emotional cues remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined the emotional pre-preparation effect during the multistage process of audiovisual integration. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a synchronous or asynchronous integration task with fearful or neutral stimuli. The results indicated that, compared with the sum of the unisensory presentation of visual (V) and auditory (A) stimuli (A+V), only fearful audiovisual stimuli induced a decreased N1 and an enhanced P2; this was not found for the neutral stimuli. Moreover, the fearful stimuli triggered a larger P2 than the neutral stimuli in the audiovisual condition, but not in the sum of the combined (A+V) waveforms. Our findings imply that, in the early perceptual processing stage and perceptual fine processing stage, fear improves the processing efficiency of the emotional audiovisual integration. In the last cognitively assessing stage, the fearful audiovisual induced a larger late positive component (LPC) than the neutral audiovisual. Moreover, the asynchronous-audiovisual induced a greater LPC than the synchronous-audiovisual during the 400-550 ms period. The different integration effects between the fearful and neutral stimuli may reflect the existence of distinct mechanisms of the pre-preparation in terms of the emotional dimension. In light of these results, we present a cross-modal emotional pre-preparation effect involving a three-phase emotional audiovisual integration.