The relationship between different exercise modes and visuospatial working memory in older adults: a cross-sectional study

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.

Which Type of Exercise Is More Beneficial for Cognitive Function? A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Open-Skill Exercise versus Closed-Skill Exercise among Children, Adults, and Elderly Populations

“…Studies that met the following inclusion criteria were considered eligible: (1) full-text studies written in English, (2) studies with an intervention or cross-sectional study design, (3) studies with CSE and OSE specifically defined and discussed as independent variables, and (4) studies that identified at least one cognition-related indicator as a dependent variable. After eliminating duplicate or irrelevant articles, the remaining articles were subjected to a full-text evaluation.…”

“…jointly analyzed the selected articles. After excluding articles that did not meet our screening criteria, a total of 19 studies, including 15 cross-sectional studies [4,20,25,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] and 4 intervention studies [21,23,24,52] were selected for the analysis. The cross-sectional studies and intervention studies were analyzed separately.…”

“…Physical exercise has the potential to improve several aspects of cognitive function over a lifetime [1], including attention [2], processing speed [3], working memory [4], and executive function [5]. Furthermore, this view is supported by many behavioral and imaging studies [6][7][8][9].…”

Acute exercise on memory function: open vs. closed skilled exercise

“…Open-skill exercises are those that require an individual to react in a dynamic way to a changing, unpredictable environment (e.g., badminton, racquetball). 13 Exercises such as walking and running would be considered "closed-skill" exercises as the environment is relatively stable, predictable, and selfpaced. 13 Recent research demonstrates that, at the same given intensity (60% of heart rate reserve, HRR), openskilled acute exercise (30-min bout) was more effective in enhancing BDNF and executive function when compared to closed-skill acute exercise.…”

“…13 Exercises such as walking and running would be considered "closed-skill" exercises as the environment is relatively stable, predictable, and selfpaced. 13 Recent research demonstrates that, at the same given intensity (60% of heart rate reserve, HRR), openskilled acute exercise (30-min bout) was more effective in enhancing BDNF and executive function when compared to closed-skill acute exercise. 14 In the current study, we are going to extend this emerging question by examining whether open vs. closed-skilled acute exercise has a differential effect on memory function, which, to date, has TUOMS P R E S S yet to be examined in the literature.…”