Acute exercise facilitates semantically cued memory in nursing home residents.
OBJECTIVE
To study the acute effects of non-strenuous physical exercise on memory retrieval and visuo-motor performance in old-old nursing home residents.


METHODS
A randomized control trial.


METHODS
A nursing home.


METHODS
Ambulatory volunteers from the nursing home, with all 20 shown to be normal on mental status. Three were male and 17 female, with a means of 84.5 years for age and 9.3 years for education. They were divided at random into an exercise and a control group.


METHODS
A single 15-minute standardized bout of non-strenuous exercise administered independently to each participant in the exercise group. Control group participants watched a video of similar exercises for 15 minutes.


METHODS
Two measures requiring the retrieval of category instances with semantic or initial consonant cues. Retrieval time was 60 seconds for each of four categories per measure. Visuo-motor performance was measured by Symbol Digit coding. Testing sessions were held before exercise, immediately post-exercise and 30 minutes post-exercise.


RESULTS
The group-by-time interaction was significant only for semantically cued memory (P < 0.01), with higher retrieval at post-testing only in the exercised group. The higher retrieval was mainly attributable to more new items retrieved by the exercise group at the immediate post-test (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides preliminary support for the hypothesis that non-strenuous physical exercise has positive acute effects on meaningfully cued memory.
Stones
M J
MJ
Gerontology Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada.
Dawe
D
D
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003463:Cues; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012660:Semantics; D013997:Time Factors