Table 1.
Descriptive statistics between intervention groups.
Table 2.
Mean pre- and post-intervention values for primary variables.
Fig 1.
Group differences in exercise intensity metrics.
(A) Peak HR, (B) peak RPE and (C) peak lactate achieved during the intervention between groups. Bars reflect mean score, and error bars represent ± SEM. *** = p < .001.
Fig 2.
Proportion of intervention group above or below lactate threshold.
Values reflect the number of participants per group with peak lactate above the lactate threshold of 4mmol/L.
Fig 3.
Change in BDNF concentration and group differences following intervention.
(A) Bars reflect mean change in BDNF concentration between groups, error bars represent ± SEM. (B) A boxplot showing the interquartile range, median, minimum, and maximum concentration of BDNF between groups from pre- to post-intervention * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001.
Fig 4.
Correlation between peak lactate and percent change in BDNF.
A scatterplot of ranked cases showing the correlation between the percent change in BDNF, and the peak lactate achieved during exercise. Y = 0.242x + 20.89, R = 0.28, p = .037.
Fig 5.
Change in high-interference memory following intervention.
Bars reflect mean change in performance on the lure discrimination index measure of the Mnemonic Similarity Task between groups, and error bars represent ± SEM. * = p < .05.
Fig 6.
Change in spatial learning and memory following intervention.
(A) Bars reflect mean change in Groton Maze learning efficiency by group. (B) Bars reflect mean change in Groton Maze test efficiency by group. Error bars represent ± SEM. * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p < .001.
Fig 7.
Routes traversed on the intervention course between groups.
Figures show the routes traversed by each study group along the (approximately) 1.3 km intervention course around the McMaster University campus. Routes in pink show the paths of those in the vigorous exercise group (n = 20) who followed a researcher throughout the course at a running speed. These pink routes indicate the most efficient route. Routes in yellow show the paths of the vigorous orienteering group (n = 19) who actively navigated the intervention course at a running speed. The blue routes are those in the moderate orienteering group (n = 22) who navigated the intervention course at a walking speed. All routes were tracked using a Polar Pacer Pro GPS watch. Note that all participants started and finished in the same location, and checkpoints remained in the same location for all trials; any major differences in routes, such as a different starting location (seen in vigorous orienteering group map) can be attributed to GPS accuracy.
Table 3.
Distances travelled on the intervention course between groups.
Table 4.
Correlation matrix between distance travelled in the intervention course by the orienteering groups and subjective measures.
Table 5.
Correlation matrix between distance travelled in the intervention course by the orienteering groups and baseline measures of cognitive function.