Muscle Strength to Mental Strength: Exercise and Age-Related Cognitive Decline

摘要

As the population replacement rate exceeds the birth rate, the median age of the population in Western countries increases. With increasing age there is a rise in population disease burden, particularly in mental health. As such, there is considerable interest in the identification of modifiable factors that may protect against cognitive aging. In this study, 71 participants, across three age-balanced groups (young, 18-21; middle-aged, 22-47 years; older adults, 48+) were recruited from the general Australian community to examine the effect of aerobic versus resistance exercise on executive functioning (EF). As hypothesized, older adults evidenced decline in self-reported executive functioning (EF) impairment, and some aspects of mental flexibility. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) revealed that moderate to high aerobic exercise engagement, and moderate resistance exercise engagement may be somewhat beneficial for reducing age-associated performance decrements in mental flexibility. A dissociation of mental flexibility from spatio-temporal tracking performance provides support for a modular decline model of cognitive aging.