Introduction: Obesity and overweight in students is a risk factor for cognitive disorders and dementia. Developing physical exercise regimens, team games, and innovative, lively learning spaces are essential to enhancing the cognitive abilities of overweight or obese students. Therefore, this study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of music during exercise on the Neuropsychological indicators of obese or overweight students.
Methods: This study used an applied, semi-experimental design. Eighty female fourth- to sixth-graders, ages nine to thirteen, voluntarily participated in the study. In addition, the following categories were randomly divided among them: 1) regular exercise in schools without music, 2) regular exercise in schools with music, and 3) regular exercise in schools with music. Then the Connors neuropsychological test questionnaire was completed by the students. Following the pre-test, the experimental group engaged in two 45-minute sessions per week of regular exercise and rhythmic games with or without music for an average of eight weeks. Eight rhythmic games were employed in this study. Choosing simple to difficult elements was considered when designing these games. The text of the music and poems was performed with the help of physical education teachers. The students completed the pre-test questionnaire again following the end of the training session. Analysis of covariance, correlated t, and Benferroni post hoc test were used. SPSS version 26 software was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Memory performance in all four training groups(P≤0.05) and cognitive processing speed and ability improved significantly only in the group of rhythmic sports activity with music(P≤0.05).
Conclusion: Sports training can improve the levels of neuropsychological functions, It can be said that the participation of students in planned sports exercises and with more cognitive aspects (perceptual-motor exercises) lead to involvement and brain activities of areas related to movement in the brain. This can probably be the reason that by increasing the activity of motor areas in children's brain, their cognitive performance also increases.