Determining Whether Tai Chi Chuan Is Related to the Updating Function in Older Adults: Differences Between Practitioners and Controls


Author: Yuan Yang1, Tingting Chen2, Chen Wang3,4, Ji Zhang3,4, Xiaoxia Yuan3,4, Xiaoke Zhong3,4, Shoufu Yan5, Changhao Jiang3,4,5

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

<sup>2</sup> School of Education, Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing, China.

<sup>3</sup> The Center of Neuroscience and Sports, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China.

<sup>4</sup> Beijing Key Laboratory of Physical Fitness Evaluation and Technical Analysis, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China.

<sup>5</sup> School of Kinesiology and Health, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China.
Conference/Journal: Front Public Health
Date published: 2022 May 3
Other:
 Volume ID: 10   ,  Pages: 797351   ,  Special Notes: doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.797351.   ,  Word Count: 280  
    Background:

Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) is an effective method for delaying cognitive decline in older adults. However, in older adults, the association between long-term TCC practice and working memory updating has not been extensively studied.



Objective:

This cross-sectional study investigated how updating function operationalized via Reaction Times (RTs) and Accuracy Rates (ARs) of N-Back tasks being measured in a laboratory setting is related to long term practice of TCC.



Methods:

Twenty-six healthy elderly people participated in this experiment. According to the duration of time TCC was practiced, 13 subjects in the TCC group had more than 5 years of experience with TCC exercise, and 13 elderly subjects who had not been systematically exposed to mind-body exercise were assigned to the control group. The N-back task was administered to every participant to evaluate the updating function.



Results:

The TCC group had faster RTs than the control group (p < 0.05). For the 1-back task, the TCC group showed faster RTs than the control group; for the 2-back task, the TCC group exhibited faster RTs than the control group. The TCC group had higher ARs than the control group (p < 0.05). For the 1-back task, the TCC group showed higher ARs than the control group; for the 2-back task, the TCC group exhibited higher ARs than the control group.



Conclusions:

Long-term TCC practitioners exhibit a better updating function as compared to controls who did not practice TCC. Thus, our findings suggest that long-term TCC positively influences the updating function of older adults, making it, in turn, an effective mind-body exercise to maintain specific aspects of cognitive functioning.



Keywords: Accuracy Rates (ARs); Reaction Times (RTs); Tai Chi Chuan; older adults; updating function.



PMID: 35592079 PMCID: PMC9110777 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.797351