Comparative effectiveness of physical activity interventions on cognitive functions in children and adolescents with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Researchers looked at 31 randomized controlled trials involving over 1,400 children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD and autism, to see which types of physical activity worked best for improving thinking skills like attention, memory, and planning. They found that mind-body exercise (such as yoga or tai chi), exergaming (active video games), and multi-component physical activity (mixed types of movement combined) all showed moderate to substantial improvements in at least one area of cognition, while plain aerobic exercise did not. When the researchers compared these approaches head-to-head, exergaming and multi-component activity both performed somewhat better than aerobic exercise for planning and organization skills.

However, when they looked more closely at specific conditions like ADHD and autism separately, the picture became murkier, and multi-component activity emerged as more consistent across different groups. The authors emphasize that the overall quality of the evidence is still quite low, meaning these findings are worth exploring further but should not yet be treated as conclusive.

A new review looked at research on physical activity and how it affects concentration, memory, and thinking skills in young people with conditions like ADHD and autism. The researchers found that certain types of movement, particularly programs that blend different activities together or use active video games, appeared to help with these thinking skills.

Traditional aerobic exercise like jogging or cycling did not show clear benefits in the studies reviewed. What is encouraging is that all three types of activity that did show benefits were acceptable to young people, with similar numbers sticking with the programs.

It is also worth knowing that this research is still fairly early stage, so the picture may become clearer as more and better quality studies are done. Each young person is different, so what works well for one person may not be the same for another.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This network meta-analysis adds some useful structure to an otherwise fragmented literature on physical activity and cognition in neurodevelopmental disorders. The finding that mind-body exercise achieved effect sizes around 1.91 for attention and 0.92 for executive function, alongside exergaming's more balanced profile across attention, memory, and executive function domains, suggests that intervention design matters in ways that simple aerobic prescription may not capture.

The observation that multi-component activity showed greater consistency when analyzing specific diagnostic groups, particularly for ADHD and autism, hints at possible population-specific mechanisms or adherence patterns that deserve closer investigation. However, the authors themselves rate the certainty of evidence as very low to low, which warrants caution in clinical interpretation.

No meaningful differences in dropout between modalities suggests acceptability is not a discriminating factor. The systematic need for higher-quality direct comparisons between active interventions, rather than just comparison to control, remains a significant gap in the evidence base.