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The Effect of Brief Stair-Climbing on Divergent and Convergent Thinking.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies show that even a brief bout of aerobic exercise may enhance creative thinking. However, few studies have investigated the effect of exercise conducted in natural settings. Here, in a crossover randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effect of a common daily activity, stair-climbing, on creative thinking. As experimental intervention, subjects were asked to walk downstairs from the fourth to the first floor and back at their usual pace. As control intervention, they walked the same path but using the elevator instead. Compared to using the elevator, stair-climbing enhanced subsequent divergent but not convergent thinking in that it increased originality on the Alternate Use Test (d = 0.486). Subjects on average generated 61% more original uses after stair-climbing. This is the first study to investigate the effect of stair-climbing on creative thinking. Our findings suggest that stair-climbing may be a useful strategy for enhancing divergent thinking in everyday life.

SUBMITTER: Matsumoto K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8831728 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Effect of Brief Stair-Climbing on Divergent and Convergent Thinking.

Matsumoto Karin K Chen Chong C Hagiwara Kosuke K Shimizu Natsumi N Hirotsu Masako M Oda Yusuke Y Lei Huijie H Takao Akiyo A Fujii Yuko Y Higuchi Fumihiro F Nakagawa Shin S

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience 20220128

Recent studies show that even a brief bout of aerobic exercise may enhance creative thinking. However, few studies have investigated the effect of exercise conducted in natural settings. Here, in a crossover randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effect of a common daily activity, stair-climbing, on creative thinking. As experimental intervention, subjects were asked to walk downstairs from the fourth to the first floor and back at their usual pace. As control intervention, they walked ...[more]

PMID: 35153696

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Project description:IntroductionNumerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of creativity from bilingualism. Divergent thinking and convergent thinking are considered the two most important components of creativity. Various (although not all) studies have concluded that bilingual children outperform monolingual children in divergent thinking, however, no study on children or adolescents so far has explored the relation between bilingualism and convergent thinking, or the brain structural basis of interaction between bilingualism and creativity. This study aimed to explore the impact of bilingualism on both convergent and divergent thinking in children and adolescents based on neuropsychological assessments, and the possible structural basis of the effect of bilingualism on creativity by a whole-brain analysis of regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and cortical thickness in children and adolescents.Methods92 healthy children and adolescents of age 4-18 were recruited from public or private schools in the French-speaking side of Switzerland. Demographic data of the participants were collected, including gender, age, pedagogy, usage of language, and parents' socioeconomic status. Most of the participants underwent the neuropsychological assessments of divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and fluid intelligence. Structural image data of 75 participants were analyzed. Both voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and surface-based morphometry (SBM) were processed, to perform the analyses of rGMV and cortical thickness respectively.ResultsThe outcomes indicated that convergent thinking, but not divergent thinking benefits from bilingualism in children and adolescents. However, this bilingual advantage appears to weaken across development. Unexpectedly, no significant correlation between morphometry and bilingualism was found. Neither divergent thinking scores nor convergent thinking scores showed any significant correlation with rGMV. However, the whole brain SBM showed that the cortical thickness in the right supplementary motor area (SMA) was negatively correlated with convergent thinking scores, which suggested that the children and adolescents with higher convergent thinking abilities may have thinner, more mature, and more activated cortex in the right SMA.DiscussionBilingualism and cortical thinness in the right SMA might facilitate convergent thinking independently, by enhancing this selective ability.

Project description:Background: Cardiac rehabilitation exercise reduces the risk of secondary cardiovascular disease. Interval training is a time-efficient alternative to traditional cardiac rehabilitation exercise and stair climbing is an accessible means. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a high-intensity interval stair climbing intervention on improving cardiorespiratory fitness ( V˙O2peak ) compared to standard cardiac rehabilitation care. Methods: Twenty participants with coronary artery disease (61 ± 7 years, 18 males, two females) were randomly assigned to either traditional moderate-intensity exercise (TRAD) or high-intensity interval stair climbing (STAIR). V˙O2peak was assessed at baseline, following 4 weeks of six supervised exercise sessions and after 8 weeks of ~24 unsupervised exercise sessions. TRAD involved a minimum of 30 min at 60-80%HRpeak, and STAIR consisted of three bouts of six flights of 12 stairs at a self-selected vigorous intensity (~90 s/bout) separated by recovery periods of walking (~90 s). This study was registered as a clinical trial at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03235674). Results: Two participants could not complete the trial due to the time commitment of the testing visits, leaving n = 9 in each group who completed the interventions without any adverse events. V˙O2peak increased after supervised and unsupervised training in comparison to baseline for both TRAD [baseline: 22.9 ± 2.5, 4 weeks (supervised): 25.3 ± 4.4, and 12 weeks (unsupervised): 26.5 ± 4.8 mL/kg/min] and STAIR [baseline: 21.4 ± 4.5, 4 weeks (supervised): 23.4 ± 5.6, and 12 weeks (unsupervised): 25 ± 6.2 mL/kg/min; p (time) = 0.03]. During the first 4 weeks of training (supervised) the STAIR vs. TRAD group had a higher %HRpeak (101 ± 1 vs. 89 ± 1%; p ≤ 0.001), across a shorter total exercise time (7.1 ± 0.1 vs. 36.7 ± 1.1 min; p = 0.009). During the subsequent 8 weeks of unsupervised training, %HRpeak was not different (87 ± 8 vs. 96 ± 8%; p = 0.055, mean ± SD) between groups, however, the STAIR group continued to exercise for less time per session (10.0 ± 3.2 vs. 24.2 ± 17.0 min; p = 0.036). Conclusions: Both brief, vigorous stair climbing, and traditional moderate-intensity exercise are effective in increasing V˙O2peak , in cardiac rehabilitation exercise programmes.

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The Effect of Brief Stair-Climbing on Divergent and Convergent Thinking.

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The Effect of Brief Stair-Climbing on Divergent and Convergent Thinking.

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