Investigating cognitive-physical task interaction during self-paced cycling: A Granger causality study Avancini, Chiara Marinazzo, Daniele Sanabria Lucena, Daniel Pérez Díaz, Juán José Salas Montoro, José Antonio Ciria Pérez, Luis Fernando This study was supported by a research project grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to Daniel Sanabria (PID2019-105635 GB-I00); a postdoctoral fellowship by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation awarded to Chiara Avancini (FJC2020-046310-I); a postdoctoral fellowship from the Regional Government of Andalusia awarded to Luis F. Ciria (DOC_00225); a predoctoral fellowships by the Spanish Ministry of Universities awarded to Juan José Pérez-Díaz (FPU20/00611) and to José-Antonio Salas-Montoro (FPU17/04742). Self-pacing physical exercise is thought to rely on high-order cognitive processing (e.g., attentional control to monitor afferent cardiovascular feedback for exercise goals). Therefore, performing a cognitive task during a self-paced exercise could lead to cognitive-physical interactions. We explored cognitive-physical interactions by applying time-domain Granger Causality (a correlation analysis that uses a temporal series of one variable to improve the prediction of values in a temporal series of another variable given its past values) to data that combined 20 min of indoor self-paced high-intensity cycling and a Sustained Attention to Response cognitive task, and to data that combined 30 min of indoor self-paced high-intensity cycling and a stimulus-response conflict task. Moreover, we explored whether greater experience in cycling would reduce the need for exerting cognitive attentional control and therefore dual-task effects. The results showed that the experienced cycling group (i.e., at least 4 days of weekly cycling training in the last 3 years) demonstrated better overall physical performance than the non-experienced cycling group (i.e., at least 4 days of weekly training in another endurance sport different to cycling in the last 3 years), while no evidence of differences in cognitive performance was obtained. The results also showed that reaction times and power output interacted bidirectionally in a reduced sample of experienced cyclists and non-experienced cyclists. Hence, cognitive-physical interactions may not be excluded for every single high-fit athlete, irrespective of their particular exercise experience. Our study highlights the value of GC to investigate cognitive-physical interactions during self-paced exercise at the individual level. 2025-04-28T07:31:59Z 2025-04-28T07:31:59Z 2025-05 journal article Avancini, Chiara et al. Psychology of Sport and Exercise Volume 78, May 2025, 102809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102809 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/103818 10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.102809 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier