ABSTRACT
The central importance of movement for healthy child development is widely recognized in politics, science, and education. In principle, exercise and cognition research has the potential to provide some advice concerning the association between physical activity (PA) and cognition. The term PA is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles through energy expenditure. The term “cognition” can be defined as “any form of information processing, mental operation, or intellectual activity, such as thinking, reasoning, remembering, imagining, or learning”. Generally speaking, cognition includes both bottom-up and top-down cognitive processes. Physical activities differ in many ways, ranging from more energetically determined activities, such as aerobic or strength exercises, to more information-oriented activities, such as coordinative or dual-task exercises. The umbrella term Executive functions (EFs) refers to a multi-component construct that consists of several distinct, yet interrelated, processes, encompassing the cognitive processes responsible for controlling and organizing goal-directed behaviour.
