Maintained and Delayed Benefits of Executive Function Training and Low-Intensity Aerobic Exercise Over a 3.5-Year Period in Older Adults

Lixia Yang, Lixia Yang

Abstract

This is a follow-up study of our previous work, with a specific goal to examine whether older adults are able to maintain or show delayed cognitive and psychosocial benefits of executive function training and physical exercise over a period of 3.5 years on average. Thirty-four participants from the original training study (17 from the executive function training and 17 from the aerobic exercise group) returned and completed a single follow-up session on a set of cognitive and psychosocial outcome measures. The results of the returned follow-up sample showed some significant original training transfer effects in WCST-64 performance but failed to maintain these benefits at the follow-up session. Surprisingly, episodic memory performance showed some significant improvement at the follow-up relative to baseline, signaling delayed benefits. The findings add some novel implications for cognitive training schedule and highlight the possible importance of continuous engagement in long-term cognitive enhancement in healthy older adults.

Keywords: aerobic exercise; delayed benefits; executive function training; maintained benefits; older adults; transfer effects.

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Copyright © 2022 Yang.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The effect size scores of immediate benefit at the post-test session and delayed benefit at the follow-up session in WCST-64 (A) and HVLT-R (B) outcome variables for the executive function and physical training groups..

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