Executive functions emerge throughout childhood and shape multiple cognitive and behavioral outcomes across the lifespan. Given the importance of these functions, there is considerable interest in understanding the role of environmental enrichment to support their development. The past 20 years have seen the emergence of a body of evidence around the beneficial effects of engaging in physical activity for executive functioning in children. Despite this, there are still unanswered questions, particularly about the confounding effects of the timing and dose of exercise-based interventions. During development, sensitive periods with heightened neural plasticity and sensitivity to environmental influences can offer an optimal time to introduce enrichment interventions. As such, sensitive periods for executive function could indicate an ideal time to introduce physical activity or be a potential confounder to study results if not considered. This narrative review discusses the potential presence of sensitive periods in preadolescent development where physical activity has greater benefits for executive function. Initially, we briefly review the largely parallel fields investigating the presence of sensitive periods for executive function and the effects of physical activity on executive function outcomes. We then bring together these two concepts to discuss the theoretical basis for developmentally sensitive periods during which children may be particularly amenable to physical activity-based interventions and offer potential ways forward to investigate this phenomenon. We hope this review will attract researchers to collaborate in the area and extend our current understanding of the development of executive functions as well as interventions like physical activity.

中文翻译：

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是否存在影响儿童执行功能发育的敏感期？


执行机能贯穿整个童年时期，并塑造了整个生命周期中的多种认知和行为结果。鉴于这些功能的重要性，人们对了解环境富集在支持其发展方面的作用产生了相当大的兴趣。在过去的 20 年里，出现了大量关于参与体育活动对儿童执行功能的有益影响的证据。尽管如此，仍然存在悬而未决的问题，特别是关于基于运动的干预的时间和剂量的混杂影响。在发育过程中，神经可塑性增强和对环境影响敏感的敏感期可以提供引入富集干预的最佳时机。因此，执行功能的敏感期可能表明引入体育锻炼的理想时间，如果不考虑，可能会成为研究结果的混杂因素。本叙述性综述讨论了青春期前发育中可能存在的敏感期，其中体育活动对执行功能有更大的益处。最初，我们简要回顾了调查执行功能敏感期的存在以及身体活动对执行功能结果的影响的大部分平行领域。然后，我们将这两个概念结合起来，讨论儿童可能特别适应基于身体活动的干预的发育敏感期的理论基础，并提供了研究这种现象的潜在方法。我们希望本综述将吸引研究人员在该领域进行合作，并扩展我们目前对执行功能发展以及体育活动等干预措施的理解。