Aim: To study the effect of high intensity aerobic exercise on cognitive functions among healthcare students – An interventional study

Background: High intensity aerobic exercise is a form of cardiovascular training were the body works at 70%to90% of its maximum heart rate (HR max). Exercise benefits cardiovascular health is well known but it also benefits brain performance. Regular exercise promotes neurogenesis particularly in the hippocampus of the brain and also increases the grey matter. Studies have shown that due to less physical exercise among students there’s memory and attention deficits that decreases the quality of life. There are certain factors like stress or lack of sleep that may disturb the cognition among medical students. The relationships between exercise and levels of neurotropic factors (i.e. brain- derived neurotropic factor) are seen.

Methodology: An Experimental intervention study was conducted using purposive sampling in which 51participants performed high intensity aerobic exercise for 40 to 45minutes for 4 week , the digit span test was used to assess memory recall and flankers test for attention both the test were conducted before starting the session and after 4 weeks

Results: Participants elicited significant improvement in reaction time of memory recall and attention when comparing pre/post values.

Conclusion: The findings suggested that high intensity aerobic exercise benefits the reaction time of memory recall and attention.