Key result
Aerobic exercise improved verbal fluency and cardiovascular fitness in older adults, whereas the addition of concurrent cognitive training provided no synergistic improvement.
Why the study?
Due to the increasing popularity of computer-based cognitive training, the authors explored whether adding cognitive training to aerobic exercise would further enhance the beneficial cognitive impact of exercise.
Does the addition of cognitive training to aerobic exercise further enhance executive function and verbal fluency in older adults?
Does the addition of cognitive training to aerobic exercise further enhance executive function and verbal fluency in older adults?
Aerobic exercise improves verbal fluency in older adults, but adding concurrent cognitive training does not provide synergistic cognitive benefits.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports aerobic exercise for verbal fluency in older adults; hypothesis-generating on added cognitive training.
). Due to increasing popularity in computer-based cognitive training, we explored whether the addition of cognitive training to aerobic exercise would further enhance the beneficial cognitive impact of exercise. Therefore, this study sought to test the hypothesis that a cognitive training regimen alone would directly improve executive function and that this effect would be potentiated with the addition of aerobic exercise. The interventions lasted 12 weeks, and cognitive assessments were taken immediately prior to and after the interventions. We found that only the groups employing aerobic exercise showed improvements in verbal fluency (semantic and letter) and cardiovascular fitness with no other executive functions being significantly impacted. Cognitive training alone was associated with decreased verbal fluency. These data replicate previous findings which indicate that aerobic exercise may have a remedial or mitigating effect of cognitive decline. In addition, they provide evidence that the addition of concurrent cognitive training to an aerobic exercise program does not provide synergistic improvement in executive functions.
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Nocera et al. (2020) studied Cognitive decline. Combined aerobic exercise and cognitive training vs. Cognitive training alone or aerobic exercise alone was evaluated on Executive function and verbal fluency. Aerobic exercise improved verbal fluency and cardiovascular fitness in older adults, whereas the addition of concurrent cognitive training provided no synergistic improvement.
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