EEG recovery enhanced by acute aerobic exercise after performing mental task with listening to unpleasant sound

The present paper investigated response of electroencephalogram (EEG) to aerobic exercise with low intensity after performing mental task with listening to acoustic stimuli in order to measure a recovery effect of the acute exercise on the EEG. The mean amplitude of the alpha wave (8-13 Hz) was significantly reduced during performing mental arithmetic and/or listening to 5 KHz unpleasant tone. In particular, the mean reduction rate of the amplitude was more than 20 % in the low-frequency range of the alpha wave (8-10Hz) under both stressors. On the other hand, the alpha wave was fixed after an acute exercise of 20 min; the mean amplitude of the alpha wave exceeded 30 % of spontaneous level prior to stressed conditions in the low-frequency range but unchanged in the high-frequency range. Response of the theta wave was similar to the low-alpha wave, while beta and gamma waves showed no significant change in response to the stressors and exercise. The observation indicates that the acute exercise with low intensity may be responsible for the rapid recovery and enhancement of the alpha wave in the low-frequency range and theta wave.