The relationship between sustained attention and aerobic fitness in a group of young adults Ciria Pérez, Luis Fernando Perakakis, Pandelis Luque-Casado, Antonio Morato Gabao, Cristina Sanabria Lucena, Daniel Exercise Vigilance Response accuracy Reaction time Physical activity Oddball PVT A growing set of studies has shown a positive relationship between aerobic fitness and a broad array of cognitive functions. However, few studies have focused on sustained attention, which has been considered a fundamental cognitive process that underlies most everyday activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of aerobic fitness as a key factor in sustained attention capacities in young adults. Methods. Forty-four young adults (18 23 years) were divided into two groups as a function of the level of aerobic fitness (high-fit and low-fit). Participants completed the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) and an oddball task where they had to detect infrequent targets presented among frequent non-targets. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed faster responses for the highfit group than for the low-fit group in the PVT, replicating previous accounts. In the oddball task, the high-fit group maintained their accuracy (ACC) rate of target detection over time, while the low-fit group suffered a significant decline of response ACC throughout the task. Importantly, the results show that the greater sustained attention capacity of high-fit young adults is not specific to a reaction time (RT) sustained attention task like the PVT, but it is also evident in an ACC oddball task. In sum, the present findings point to the important role of aerobic fitness on sustained attention capacities in young adults. 2025-01-28T12:42:06Z 2025-01-28T12:42:06Z 2017-09-29 journal article Ciria, L. F., Perakakis, P., Luque-Casado, A., Morato, C., & Sanabria, D. (2017). The relationship between sustained attention and aerobic fitness in a group of young adults. PeerJ, 5, e3831. https://hdl.handle.net/10481/100796 10.7717/peerj.3831 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional PeerJ Publishing