Sedentary Behaviors and Cognitive Control: An EEG Study

The theory of effort minimization in physical activity (TEMPA) argues that individuals have an automatic attraction toward effort minimization. To engage in a physically active behavior such automatic attraction must be controlled. However, direct evidence that cognitive control is required to avoid effort minimization is lacking. Here, we used go/no-go tasks and recorded electroencephalography (EEG) to assess the neural correlates of cognitive control toward physically inactive (vs. active vs. neutral) stimuli in 50 healthy young individuals. The N2 event-related potential (ERP) component amplitude indexed cognitive control. We observed a significant two-way interaction between the type of trials (i.e., go vs. no-go trials) and the type of stimuli (physical activity vs. neutral vs. physical inactivity images) on N2. Consistent with neutral stimuli, results showed a more negative N2 amplitude for no-go trials compared with go trials for stimuli depicting physical inactivity (b=-0.58 μV, 95%CI=-1.08 to –0.08 μV,  p =.025). In contrast, for stimuli depicting physical activity, we found no evidence of significant differences in N2 amplitude between no-go and go trials (b=0.20 μV, 95%CI=-1.08 to –0.08 μV,  p =.445). The findings provide evidence that avoiding physical inactivity requires higher cognitive control than avoiding physical activity. Automatic attraction toward effort minimization seems therefore to have a role in the regulation of physical activity.