The Effects Of 8 Weeks Tai Chi Exercise On Cognitive Control And Working Memory Ability Of Community Dwelling Elderly

Objective: Cognitive control and working memory are two sub-abilities of executive function,which play an important role in the whole cognitive process.However,with the increase of age,the ability of Cognitive control and working memory are gradually declining,which seriously impairs the living ability of elderly people.Therefore,for the older adults,how to delay the decline of inhibitory control ability has become the focal point.Many studies have shown that exercise can delay the decline of executive function in elderly people,but the neural mechanism remain unknown.Tai Chi as a traditional Chinese sport,a kind of mind-body exercise,Tai Chi is beneficial to the psychological health of elderly.In this experiment,the near-infrared spectroscopy(NIRS)was used to explore the effect of 8-week Tai Chi exercise on cognitive control and working memory ability of the elderly,reveal the neural mechanism,and explore the relationship between the physiological and psychological interdependence of Tai Chi of elderly.In order to provide theoretical and empirical basis for the maintenance of executive and brain function of the elderly.Methods: 26 healthy elderly people were selected from a community in Beijing.After primary selection,the subjects were randomly divided into exercise group(n=13)and control group(n=13).Before and after the experiment,the Omega Wave diagnostic system was used to test the physical fitness of the two groups.Before and after the experiment intervention,the subjects completed the cognitive control task(Flanker)and the working memory task(N-back)respectively.At the same time,we used NIRS to investigated the characteristics of the frontal lobe oxyhemoglobin(oxyHb).Results: The results of Omegawave diagnostic system test showed that the aerobic test indexes of the exercise groups changed after exercise intervention.The aerobic ability of the exercise group was significantly higher than control group(p<0.05),but the change of the control group had no statistical significance(p>0.05).The behavioral test results showed that the response time(RT)of the subjects after exercise intervention was significantly reduced in Flanker task(p<0.05).In the N-back task,there was significant change in RT after exercise intervention(p<0.05),the accuracy rate(ACC)was significantly improved(p<0.05).The NIRS date showed that after exercise intervention,the oxy-Hb in the frontal area was higher than before,indicating that Tai Chi exercise could improve the brain activated of elderly,the change in the control group was not significant.Conclusions: 8-week Tai Chi exercise intervention can improve the aerobic working ability of the elderly,and have positive effects on cognitive control and working memory ability of the elderly;8-week Tai Chi exercise can improve the brain function of the elderly.