Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between different exercise modes and visuospatial working memory in healthy older adults. A cross-sectional design was adopted. A total of 111 healthy older adults were enrolled in the study. They were classified by the exercise-related questionnaire to be in an open-skill group, closed-skill group or sedentary group. In experiment 1, the participants performed a visuospatial working memory task. The results indicated that both closed-skill (p < 0.05) and open-skill (p < 0.01) groups reached a higher accuracy than the sedentary group. Experiment 2 examined whether the exercise-induced benefit of working memory was manifested in passive maintenance or active manipulation of working memory which was assessed by visuospatial short-term memory task and visuospatial mental rotation task, respectively. The results showed that the open-skill (p < 0.01) group was more accurate than the sedentary group in the visuospatial short-term memory task, whereas the group difference in the visuospatial mental rotation task was not significant. These findings combined to suggest that physical exercise was associated with better visuospatial working memory in older adults. Furthermore, open-skill exercises that demand higher cognitive processing showed selective benefit for passive maintenance of working memory.
Highlights
Cognitive aging is generally considered to be associated with performance decline in a multitude of cognitive tasks that require a variety of perceptual and cognitive processes
A post hoc comparison demonstrated that the participants in the two exercise groups reached a higher level of physical exercise than the sedentary group, while no significant difference between the open and closed-skill groups existed
Post hoc analysis indicated that both closed-skill group (p < 0.05) and open-skill (p < 0.01) group reached a higher accuracy than the sedentary group, but there was no difference between the closed-skill and open-skill group
Summary
Cognitive aging is generally considered to be associated with performance decline in a multitude of cognitive tasks that require a variety of perceptual and cognitive processes. Several studies have revealed that working memory may benefit from physical exercise or aerobic fitness (Chang et al, 2013; Padilla, Pérez & Andrés, 2014). Young adults reach their peak of cognitive performance, which may interfere the possible association between physical exercise (fitness) and cognition (Voss et al, 2011) It could be another possible reason for the inconsistent findings as the subject populations varied from young adults (Padilla, Pérez & Andrés, 2014; Kamijo et al, 2010) to older adults (Chang et al, 2013)
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