Bergelt, MaximilianYuan, Vanessa FungO'Brien, RichardMiddleton, Laura E.dos Santos, Wellington Martins2026-05-062026-05-062020-11-13https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242270https://hdl.handle.net/10012/23227© 2020 Bergelt et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background Evidence suggests a single bout of exercise can improve cognitive control. However, many studies only include assessments after exercise. It is unclear whether exercise changes as a result, or in anticipation, of exercise. Objective To examine changes in cognitive control due to moderate aerobic exercise, and anticipation of such exercise. Methods Thirty-one young healthy adults (mean age 22 years; 55% women) completed three conditions (randomized order): 1) exercise (participants anticipated and completed exercise); 2) anticipation (participants anticipated exercise but completed rest); and 3) rest (participants anticipated and completed rest). Cognitive control was assessed with a modified Flanker task at three timepoints: (1) early (20 min pre-intervention, pre-reveal in anticipation session); (2) pre-intervention (after reveal); and (3) post-intervention. An accuracy-weighted response time (RT LISAS) was the primary outcome, analyzed with a linear mixed effects modeling approach. Results There was an interaction between condition and time (p = 0.003) and between session and time (p = 0.015). RT LISAS was better post-exercise than post-rest and post-deception, but was similar across conditions at other timepoints. RT LISAS improved across time in session 1 and session 2, but did not improve over time in session 3. There were also main effects of condition (p = 0.024), session (p = 0.005), time (p<0.001), and congruency (p<0.001). Conclusions Cognitive control improved after moderate aerobic exercise, but not in anticipation of exercise. Improvements on a Flanker task were also observed across sessions and time, indicative of a learning effect that should be considered in study design and analyses.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/exercisecognitive psychologydeceptionlearningaerobic exerciseheart ratehuman learningsympathetic nervous systemArticle