Tomporowski et al. (2008) first addressed the potential role played by engagement in goal-directed movement actions involving mental effort. Best (2010) further developed this issue proposing that there may be at least two pathways, beyond the metabolic characteristics of exercise, by which PA impacts high-level cognition: the cognitive effort required to perform complex movements and the cognitive demands inherent in active games and sport actions. While some acute exercise studies support this view (e.g. Pesce, Crova, Cereatti, Casella, & Bellucci, 2009), others do not (e.g. Best, 2012) and it still remains to be tested if cognitive engagement is a relevant factor for chronic exercise. Recently, it has been claimed that both mental and physical activities, especially aerobic training can influence the process of neurogenesis and suggested that their combination is more beneficial for mental health than either training alone. The additive benefits of physical and mental training seem to be due to different mechanisms incresasing the number of cells that mature and survive as functional neurons, respectively (Curlick & Shors, 2012). PA intervention types used in exercise–cognition studies with children are heterogeneous (e.g. aerobic resistance, perceptual– motor training or their combination; see the review by Fedewa & Ahn, 2011) and presumably involve different levels of cognitive engagement. Nevertheless, none of those studies have verified whether movement and sport activities joining physical and cognitive challenges may determine more pronounced changes in cognitive functioning than physical exercise per se.