Relationships between physical exercise and cognitive abilities in older adults.

We investigated relationship between physical exercise and the cognitive abilities of older adults. We hypothesized that the performance of vigorous exercisers would be superior to that of sedentary individuals on measures of reasoning, working memory, and reaction time (RT). We gave a series of cognitive tasks to 62 older men and women who exercised vigorously and 62 sedentary men and women. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs), with age and education as covariates, indicated that the performance of the exercisers was significantly better on measures of reasoning, working memory, and RT. Between-group differences persisted when vocabulary, on which the performance of exercisers was superior, was used as third covariate. Subsequent analyses showed that neither self-rated health, medical conditions, nor medications contributed to the differences between exercise groups. Results suggest that the possible contribution of physical exercise to individual differences in cognition among older adults should be further investigated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural equation models of relationships between exercise and cognitive abilities.

Data were obtained from 300 men and women aged 55 to 91. Separate structural equation models of relationships between physical exercise and 3 cognitive performance variables—reaction time (RT), working memory, and reasoning—fit the data well. Other variables in the models were age, health, education, and morale. Age and exercise affected each performance variable directly; education had a direct effect on reasoning only. There were also indirect effects of age and health on performance variables, mediated through exercise. The main hypothesis of the study, that exercise contributes to performance, was supported. A large decrease in model fit resulted when the path from exercise to each variable was deleted. Hypotheses that age-related deficits are primarily accounted for by lack of exercise or by poor health were not supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)