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Hillman, Charles
Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology
B.A., University of Miami
M.S., University of Florida at Gainesville
Ph.D., University of Maryland at College Park
Research Areas
Cognitive health and long-term effective functioning
Dr. Hillman's primary research emphasis is to better understand factors that relate to increased cognitive health and effective functioning of individuals across the lifespan. Specifically, his research focuses on the relationship between both acute and chronic physical activity participation and cognitive function from a neuroelectric perspective. Using this approach, he has examined the relationship of cardiovascular activity on underlying processes involved in attention, memory, and processing speed. Generally, results from this line of research have suggested that cardiovascular activity benefits cognitive processing for tasks that require greater amounts of executive control; an effect that is less pronounced for tasks requiring lesser amounts of executive control. Accordingly, his findings indicate that cardiovascular activity may have a greater affect on cognitive processes that are more effortful, rather than a general benefit on overall cognitive function.
Representative Publications
Hillman, C.H., K.I. Erickson, and A.F. Kramer. (2008) Be smart, exercise your heart: Exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9:58-65.
Castelli, D.M., C.H. Hillman, S.M. Buck, and H.E. Erwin. (2007) Physical fitness and academic achievement in third- and fith-grade students. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 29:239-252.
Hillman C.H., R.W. Motl, M.B. Pontifex, D. Posthuma, J.H. Stubbe, D.I. Boomsma, and E.J.C. de Geus. (2006) Physical activity and cognitive function in a cross-section of younger and older community-dwelling individuals. Health Psychology 25:678-687.
Themanson, J.R. and C.H. Hillman. (2006) Cardiorespiratory fitness and acute aerobic exercise effects on neuroelectric and behavioral measures of action monitoring. Neuroscience 141:757-767.
Themanson, J.R., C.H. Hillman, and J.J. Curtin. (2006) Age and physical activity influences on action monitoring during task switching. Neurobiology of Aging 27:1335-1345.
Hillman, C.H., D.M. Castelli, and S.M. Buck. (2005) Aerobic fitness and cognitive function in healthy preadolescent children. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 37:1967-1974.
Additional Information
Related Research (By Area):
Cognitive Neuroscience
Sensory and Motor Systems
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