Time-lagged associations between executive function and sedentary behaviour in daily life

Abstract

Background: Executive function (EF) is important in effortful behavioural regulation, so may play an important role in determining sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity. However, it is also the case that physical activity leads to improved cognitive (and particularly executive) functioning. We investigated within-person associations between EF and SB using an ecological momentary assessment design, with time-lagged analysis used to unravel any direction of causality. Methods: 65 adults (50f, M age = 38.9) wore a hip-mounted accelerometer (measuring SB) and completed repeated Go/NoGo tasks (measuring EF resources) on a wrist-mounted electronic device every waking hour over 7 consecutive days. SB was defined as the number of mins/hour where activity counts were <100. Statistical analysis used multilevel modelling. Findings: Within individuals, increased SB in the prior hour was associated with poorer Go/NoGo task performance (p < .05). Poorer-than-usual Go/NoGo task performance was not associated with SB in the following hour (p = .41). Discussion: Increased SB in daily life leads to an immediate reduction in EF, but we found no evidence that momentary declines in EF promote increased SB.