Author(s): GUILBAUD, L., GAJDOS-PREUSS, T., DUPUY, O., BERGEON, F., HAYS, A., MESSONNIER, L., DAVRANCHE, K., Institution: AIX MARSEILLE UNIVERSITY, Country: FRANCE, Abstract-ID: 2478

Introduction
Imagine an athlete who must analyse a dynamic environment in a fraction of a second, make a decision, and execute a precise action. Such performance relies not only on physical preparation but also on cognitive abilities -to perceive, process, interpret, and select relevant information while coping the disruptive effects of intense exertion.
Yet, our understanding remains limited of how athletes monitor and adjust their own cognitive processes, especially when evaluating the confidence in their decisions -a critical aspect of metacognition. By integrating behavioral and physiological measurements, this study investigates how high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) influences information processing, affects perceptual decision-making and modulates the efficiency of self-assessment regarding one’s own actions.

Methods
Sixteen active young adults (22.3 ± 2.5 years, 6 women) completed two sessions on separate days: a HIIE session consisting of 8 × 3min bouts above the lactate threshold, interspersed with 5min recovery periods, and a control session involving video watching. During each 5min recovery period, participants performed a visual discrimination task. Confidence judgments -the evaluation of the accuracy of a decision just made- were collected during the first and the last blocks of each session. Capillary blood lactate and glucose levels, heart rate, RPE and rate of perceived fatigue were measured throughout the protocol. Two cognitive measures were analysed using mixed-effects models (i) Reaction Time (RT) performance and (ii) metacognitive sensitivity, which quantifies the trial-by-trial relationship between confidence and response accuracy.

Results
Results indicated that exercise induced significant physiological stress, with lactate levels rising to 4.75 ± 1.8 mmol/L during the HIIE session compared to 0.99 ± 0.53 mmol/L in the control condition.
Analyses revealed that HIIE exercise impaired information processing in terms of speed, with no effect on accuracy (p=0.58).
Mean RT was significantly longer in the HIIE condition than in the control condition (HIIE: 965 ± 334 ms; REST: 952 ± 366 ms) (p<0.001).
Metacognitive sensitivity was quantified using the area under the curve (AUC) for the type-2 Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), calculated separately for each participant. Results showed a trend toward lower AUC values in the HIIE session compared to control session, indicating potential reduced metacognitive sensitivity (p=0.08).

Conclusion
The current study demonstrates that HIIE slows information processing without compromising accuracy, it also tends to reduce metacognitive sensitivity -suggesting that intense exercise may impair athlete's ability to accurately evaluate their own decisions. These findings highlight the need for further investigation into the exercise-cognition interaction, particularly the underlying mechanisms of information processing and metacognitive abilities.