Abstract: Background: Executive functions (EFs) are crucial for the physical and psychological development of children, and exercise is a cost-effective method to enhance EFs in children. Studies have shown that exercise combined with cognitive training (ECT), which involves higher cognitive engagement, may have a more significant effect on children's EFs. However, existing research conclusions are inconsistent. Objective: To systematically analyzed the intervention effect of ECT on EFs in children. Design: Systematic review. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, Google Scholar, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases from the inception to October 17, 2023. Inclusion criteria were: randomized controlled trials (RCT) or non-randomized controlled trials（NRCT）; healthy child participants; ECT intervention with both exercise and at least one explicit cognitive task component for the experimental group; any form of exercise other than cognitive engagement or traditional physical education (PE) for the control group; intervention duration longer than 6 weeks; at least one EF-related assessment outcome; articles in Chinese or English. Risk of bias was assessed using the 2010 Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale. The percentage change in each outcome measure before and after the intervention ［(post-test-pre-test) / pre-test × 100%］ was extracted or calculated, with a P-value < 0.05 indicating significant results. The overall effect size of the indicator was evaluated by the proportion of significant results in all included literature, with > 2/3 indicating a significant effect of the intervention strategy. Main outcome measures: Percentage change in EF indicators before and after the intervention. Results: Nine English articles were included. Four articles had aerobic exercise (AE) control groups, and 8 had PE control groups. The intervention lasted from 6 to 40 weeks with 1 to 10 times per week and 10 to 150 minutes for single exercise. PEDro scale scores were 5 in 3 articles, 6 in 5 articles and 7 in 1 article.The improvement in working memory in the ECT group was more significant than that in PE group, with an effectiveness of 71.4%. Improvement in cognitive flexibility were more significant in the ECT group compared to both AE and PE groups, with effectiveness of 100% and 75%, respectively. Conclusions: ECT significantly improves EFs in school-aged healthy children, with a greater enhancement in cognitive flexibility compared to AE and PE, an improvement in working memory superior to PE, and equivalent improvement in inhibitory control when compared to AE and PE.

Key words: Exercise combined with cognitive training, Executive functions, Children, Intervention, Systematic review