Abstract
Age-related cognitive decline is associated with increased risk of disability, dementia, and death. Recent studies suggest improvement in cognitive speed, attention, and executive functioning with physical activity. However, whether such improvements are activity specific is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to study the effect of 1 year age-adapted Taekwondo training on several cognitive functions, including reaction/motor time, information processing speed, and working and executive memory, in 24 healthy volunteers over 40. Reaction and motor time decreased with 41.2 and 18.4 s (p = 0.004, p = 0.015), respectively. Digit symbol coding task improved with a mean of 3.7 digits (p = 0.017). Digit span, letter fluency, and trail making test task-completion-time all improved, but not statistically significant. The questionnaire reported “better” reaction time in 10 and “unchanged” in 9 of the 19 study compliers. In conclusion, our data suggest that age-adapted Taekwondo training improves various aspects of cognitive function in people over 40, which may, therefore, offer a cheap, safe, and enjoyable way to mitigate age-related cognitive decline.
Highlights
Age-related cognitive decline is associated with increased risk of disability, dementia, and death
In the absence of any study so far, we aimed to study the effect of 1 year Taekwondo training on several cognitive functions, including reaction time (RT) and motor time (MT), information processing speed, and working and executive semantic memory, in a group of healthy, volunteers over 40
Our study showed that a weekly 1 h Taekwondo training for the duration of 15 months improves several aspects of cognition in participants over 40, in particular cognitive speed relating to inhibition improved, as well as in information processing
Summary
Age-related cognitive decline is associated with increased risk of disability, dementia, and death. In the absence of any study so far, we aimed to study the effect of 1 year Taekwondo training on several cognitive functions, including reaction time (RT) and motor time (MT), information processing speed, and working and executive semantic memory, in a group of healthy, volunteers over 40. If effective, such Taekwondo-based exercise program could offer a cheap method to lower age-related cognitive decline, which eventually might contribute to mitigate age-related loss of self-maintenance in the general population
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