Improving aerobic capacity in healthy older adults does not necessarily lead to improved cognitive performance.
The effects of aerobic exercise training in a sample of 85 older adults were investigated. Ss were assigned randomly to either an aerobic exercise group, a nonaerobic exercise (yoga) group, or a waiting-list control group. Following 16 weeks of the group-specific protocol, all of the older Ss received 16 weeks of aerobic exercise training. The older adults demonstrated a significant increase in aerobic capacity (cardiorespiratory fitness). Performance on reaction-time tests of attention and memory retrieval was slower for the older adults than for a comparison group of 24 young adults, and there was no improvement in the older adults' performance on these tests as a function of aerobic exercise training. Results suggest that exercise-related changes in older adults' cognitive performance are due either to extended periods of training or to cohort differences between physically active and sedentary individuals.
Madden
D J
DJ
Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center.
Blumenthal
J A
JA
Allen
P A
PA
Emery
C F
CF
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010809:Physical Fitness; D011930:Reaction Time; D014888:Wechsler Scales