Look at a group of kids, and you’re going to see many different shapes and sizes.
Does it make a difference in their impulse control or ability to concentrate? What if they are the same weight, but one has more fat than the other? Does their fitness level make a difference in such abilities?
New research from Northeastern University suggests that both body composition and fitness level relate to inhibitory controls, but do so independently and uniquely.
“We found that greater aerobic fitness was associated with better inhibitory control,” said Kellyn Carlson, a Ph.D. student at Northeastern’s Institute for Cognitive and Brain Health who led the study. Inhibitory control is the ability to suppress a response or actively ignore irrelevant distractions.
“Body fat relates differently,” Carlson continued, “with more impulsive, but not more accurate, responses in tests.”
The study, which involved roughly 100 pre-adolescent children, was published in July in the journal Scientific Reports.
Researchers first measured participants’ body composition using a Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry, or DEXA scanner, a medical imaging device. Unlike the more typical measure of body mass index, a measure of weight relative to height, the DEXA scanner measures and is able to categorize the body’s mass in terms of lean tissue such as muscle tissue and organs, as well as fat, bone, and water. This enables the researchers to isolate body fat and lean tissue as variables and measure their individual impacts on inhibitory control.
It is the “gold standard measure,” Charles Hillman, Michele and Anthony Manganaro distinguished professor and director of the institute, said of the DEXA.
