Effects of combined physical and cognitive training on fitness and neuropsychological outcomes in healthy older adults

Abstract

PurposePhysical exercise and cognitive training have been shown to enhance cognition among older adults. However, few studies have looked at the potential synergetic effects of combining physical and cognitive training in a single study. Prior trials on combined training have led to interesting yet equivocal results. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of combined physical and cognitive interventions on physical fitness and neuropsychological performance in healthy older adults.MethodsSeventy-six participants were randomly assigned to one of four training combinations using a 2×2 factorial design. The physical intervention was a mixed aerobic and resistance training program, and the cognitive intervention was a dual-task (DT) training program. Stretching and toning exercises and computer lessons were used as active control conditions. Physical and cognitive measures were collected pre- and postintervention.ResultsAll groups showed equivalent improvements in measures of functional mobility. The aerobic–strength condition led to larger effect size in lower body strength, independently of cognitive training. All groups showed improved speed of processing and inhibition abilities, but only participants who took part in the DT training, independently of physical training, showed increased task-switching abilities. The level of functional mobility after intervention was significantly associated with task-switching abilities.ConclusionCombined training did not yield synergetic effects. However, DT training did lead to transfer effects on executive performance in neuropsychological tests. Both aerobic-resistance training and stretching-toning exercises can improve functional mobility in older adults.

Comparing the Transfer Effects of Simultaneously and Sequentially Combined Aerobic Exercise and Cognitive Training in Older Adults

“…First, many of the published studies on multimodal training directly compare active treatments only (Zhu et al 2016). Second, we found in our recent work that an active control group (i.e., stretching plus internet lessons) did not exhibit pre-post improvements in cognition (Desjardins-Crépeau et al 2016). The main purpose of our study was to directly compare the effectiveness of the two formats (simultaneous and sequential) of multimodal training and not to test for the synergistic effects of multimodal training, which would require at least a single-modality control group (Zhu et al 2016).…”

“…By contrast, another sequential training protocol administered on different days led to comparable gains when compared to single-modality cognitive training on measures of EFs and episodic memory (Shatil 2013). Desjardins-Crépeau et al (2016) also failed to find synergistic effects of sequential multimodal training utilizing Bherer et al's (2005) DT training protocol and moderate-intensity aerobic training administered on separate days.…”

“…A second issue to consider is that the same materials were used for both pre-and post-training sessions; thus, some of the general improvement could be attributed to practice, although our recent findings with an active control group argue against this explanation (Desjardins-Crépeau et al 2016). There is also evidence to the contrary regarding the significance of practice effects on neuropsychological tests, particularly in older adult samples (Mitrushina and Satz 1991).…”

“…For example, working memory training has led to significant transfer gains in EFs in both young and older adults (Baniqued et al 2015;Brehmer et al 2012;Morrison and Chein 2011;Rhodes and Katz 2017). Similarly, dual-task (DT) training has led to cross-modality near-transfer, (Bherer et al 2005(Bherer et al , 2006(Bherer et al , 2008Desjardins-Crépeau et al 2016;Erickson et al 2007aErickson et al , 2007bLussier et al 2015Lussier et al , 2016, upregulation and increased efficiency in prefrontal regions in younger and older adults (Erickson et al 2007a, b), and improved balance and mobility (Li et al 2010). Such DT training is thought to improve processes such as task coordination and working memory (Bherer et al 2005).…”

“…Our approach was to use a well-established DT training task (Bherer et al 2005) and combine it with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise . In recent work (Desjardins-Crépeau et al 2016), this same combination was delivered sequentially and compared with an active control condition (computer lessons plus stretching). Notably, no cognitive gains were observed for this active control combination, leading us to simplify our design to the direct comparison of the two training schedules.…”