Visuomotor memory in elderly: effect of a physical exercise program

Memory, namely visuomotor memory, is one of the most essential cognitive functions in elder’s life. Among others, regular exercise seems to be an important factor in counteracting age-related-cognitive skills changes and thus prevent memory loss. However, in spite of the importance of visuomotor memory, the results of the scarce studies concerning the influence of exercise on this capacity are contradictory. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of physical exercise (PE) in visuomotor memory (VMM) of elderly adults in function of gender and age. VMM (time spent in performing the test and errors during the execution) of 74 subjects aged 60-90 years, being 36 practitioners of PE (P - mean age of 70.22 ± 0.90 years) and 38 non-practitioners (NP - mean age of 68.26 ± 1.12 years) were assessed by VMM Test. The results showed that: a) P presented a better performance in the time of performing the test and in the number of errors committed compared to NP; b) Gender and age did not influence the VMM performance. Data suggest that PE seems to have positive effect in the VMM, independently of gender and age.

视觉运动记忆（visuomotor memory，VMM）是老年人生命中最为核心的认知功能之一。除此之外，规律运动似乎是延缓与年龄相关的认知能力衰退、进而预防记忆丧失的重要因素。然而，尽管视觉运动记忆的重要性不言而喻，但现有关于运动对该能力影响的研究数量稀少且结论相互矛盾。本研究旨在探究体育运动（physical exercise，PE）对老年人群视觉运动记忆的影响，并结合性别与年龄因素分析其效应。本研究通过视觉运动记忆测试，对74名年龄介于60至90岁的受试者进行评估：其中36名为规律运动者（P组，平均年龄70.22±0.90岁），38名为非运动者（NP组，平均年龄68.26±1.12岁），评估指标包括测试完成时长与执行过程中出现的错误次数。研究结果显示：a）相较于NP组，P组在测试完成时长与错误次数两项指标上均表现更优；b）性别与年龄未对视觉运动记忆表现产生显著影响。综上数据表明，体育运动对视觉运动记忆具有正向改善作用，且该效应不受性别与年龄的制约。