Abstract
Background: Epidemiological studies of the effect of physical activity on cognition demonstrated an inverse relationship between physical activity and cognitive decline. However, such health behaviors are hardly invariable over time. The relative homogeneity of the adult lifestyle of nuns/monks as well as master athletes reduces the likelihood of confounding due to differences in their participation in regular life-long physical activities. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in cognitive functions between nuns/monks, master athletes and sedentary, but otherwise healthy older adults. Additionally, we examined associations between demographic variables (education, sex, age), BMI, physical activity, exercise, and fitness and cognitive performance.Methods: We recruited three groups of healthy participants without cognitive deficits: (1) Nuns/Monks (n = 20; age 77.5 ± 5.56; 5 M, 15 W), (2) Master Athletes (n = 20; age 76.5 ± 5.33; 12 M, 8 W), and (3) Sedentary (n = 20; 76.4 ± 5.96, 6 M, 14 W). Cognitive performance (working memory, inhibition) was measured with a n-back task and a flanker task, participation in physical activities with the “German-PAQ-50+,” and physical fitness with the 30s chair stand and arm curl test.Results: As predicted, ANOVA comparing groups revealed the three groups differed in cognition, physical activity, and physical fitness with inactive older adults performing lower on all tests than the other two groups. Hierarchical regression analyses showed a positive influence of lifestyle stability on accuracy and reaction time for working memory and inhibitory performance. The highest correlation coefficients for fitness and cognitive performance emerged for the group of nuns and monks.Conclusion: Life-long stability of an active lifestyle may confer benefits to some aspects of working memory, attention, and inhibitory control. Longitudinal studies are recommended to further examine the causal relationship of lifestyle stability and cognitive function in such specific cohorts.
Highlights
Worldwide we find an increasing number of individuals becoming centenarians and live “sharp as a tack” and/or physically fit while many others suffer varying degrees of cognitive and motor deterioration with increased morbidity, dependence, and mortality (Negash et al, 2013)
Sixty healthy older adults (23 men, 37 women) with no signs of dementia selected by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; score > 25; Nasreddine et al, 2005) were recruited from the southern part of Germany
The proportion of male subjects was higher in the group of the Master Athletes than in groups of sedentary older adults (p = 0.057) and nuns and monks (p = 0.025)
Summary
Worldwide we find an increasing number of individuals becoming centenarians and live “sharp as a tack” and/or physically fit while many others suffer varying degrees of cognitive and motor deterioration with increased morbidity, dependence, and mortality (Negash et al, 2013). A number of studies have found that high physical activity levels or better low levels of sedentariness (prolonged and uninterrupted periods of sitting) as well as high aerobic capacity are associated with neuroprotective effects on structural and functional brain health (e.g., increased gray and white matter of the prefrontal and temporal cortices, neurogenesis, synaptogenesis) in healthy older adults as well as patients with Mild Cognitive Disorder or Dementia (for a recent review see Tyndall et al, 2018). Epidemiological studies of the effect of physical activity on cognition demonstrated an inverse relationship between physical activity and cognitive decline Such health behaviors are hardly invariable over time. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in cognitive functions between nuns/monks, master athletes and sedentary, but otherwise healthy older adults. We examined associations between demographic variables (education, sex, age), BMI, physical activity, exercise, and fitness and cognitive performance
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