On mindful and mindless physical activity and executive function: A response to Diamond and Ling (2016)

We read with great interest Diamond and Ling’s (2016) review of the effects of ‘mindful’ and ‘mindless’ physical activity on executive control, as well as their perspectives on the state of research within the field of kinesiological cognitive neuroscience. However, with such a review comes the responsibility to accurately describe the literature and provide a balanced discussion. In the spirit of measured scientific debate, we challenge the Diamond and Ling review on several issues where we believe the authors to have fallen short. Specifically, the authors omit several highly relevant articles, failing to create a balanced perspective, mischaracterize the methodology (including the type of interventions) of several studies, and misinterpret the results of other publications. As a result, it is our position that their review is an inaccurate representation of the state of the field. Prior to detailing the issues associated with the authors’ “evidencebased” beliefs regarding physical activity and executive control, we will briefly discuss the topic of ‘mindful’ vs. ‘mindless’ physical activity, which is at the crux of their argument. We agree with the authors that it is possible that physical activity containing a more demanding cognitive component may lead to greater gains in executive control than physical activity with a lesser cognitive component. However, this is largely hypothetical as little empirical evidence exists to support such a claim (see Moreau et al., 2015 for a notable exception; but also see below for further discussion of the authors’ misrepresentation of the findings). Rather, the vast majority of evidence for favorable effects of physical activity on cognitive and brain outcomes comes from studies that do not have a clear cognitive component (i.e., walking). Given the lack of empirical support for ‘mindful’ physical activity improving executive control in general, we must entertain the possibility that such a form of exercise may in fact lead to smaller gains or even hinder performance gains expected to accrue through ‘mindless’ physical activity. As indicated, this is only a possibility, but until an empirical evidence base emerges in the literature we argue that ‘mindful’ physical activity may either benefit or hinder executive control; thus, Diamond and Ling’s (2016) stance on this topic is hypothetical; it currently is not supported by the literature, and requires future, well-designed randomized controlled trial research to substantiate it. Accordingly, we recognize this empirical question as being important to shaping the future direction of the field, and look forward to the emerging literature in the coming years. Further, we disagree with Diamond’s use of the dichotomous (and apparently mutually exclusive) terms ‘mindful’ and ‘mindless’ to describe physical activity, as these terms are misleading in their suggestion that there are modes of physical activity that can be performed in the absence of any deliberate and conscious thought. In fact, this is not the case, as patterns of brain activation underlying ‘mindless’ physical activity have been identified from both fine and gross (e.g., walking) motor actions (e.g., Dum et al., 2002). In addition, neural circuits that support many aspects of motor function and motor learning including