The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the experience of camping upon cerebral activity.An experimental method, utilizing the go/no-go task, was used to examine the grasping response of a rubberboll to a light stimulus. The go/no-go task is a representative method of investigating the human inhibitoryfunction. The subjects were 46 children (27-boys and 19-girls) in grades 3 and 4 who participated in a 6-daycamp. This camp was designed to ensure that participants were given ample and vital opportunities for notonly physical activity but for communication with other people. We carried out the go/no-go experiment onfour occasions. (pre-1: 17days before camp, pre-2: first day of camp, post-1: final day of camp, post-2: 13days after camp)
The following results were obtained.
The post-1 data showed a significant decrease in the number of errors compared with pre-2 data. This resultsuggests that the children's camp which included vital opportunities for physical activity andcommunication with other people had a positive influence on cerebral activity. A similar result of asignificant decrease between pre-camp and post-camp was observed in two separate investigates. However, the change between pre-1 and pre-2, post-1 and post-2 were not significant. The results suggest that thedecrease between pre-camp and post-camp was the effect of camping experience, and its effect continued for 2 weeks after camping experience.
