Newson Rachel S, Kemps Eva B
School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
Exp Aging Res. 2006 Jul-Sep;32(3):341-62. doi: 10.1080/03610730600699134.
This study examined the relative benefits of physical and cognitive activities on simple and complex cognitive task performance in older adults. Participants were 24 young (18-27 years), 24 young-old (65-74 years), 24 middle-old (75-84 years), and 24 old-old (85-92 years) adults. Participants recorded the amount of time engaged in physically and cognitively stimulating activities as well as the effort exerted during these activities. They also completed a simple and complex version of a visual imagery task. Age-related declines were evident in activity and imagery performance. Both physical and cognitive activities were related to better cognitive performance. Furthermore, cognitive activity was a stronger predictor than physical activity of the complex, but not the simple task. However, within each activity domain there were no significant differences between performance on the simple and complex task. These results suggest that physical and cognitive stimulation are useful in protecting against cognitive decline with age, but that they may exert their influence via different paths.
本研究探讨了身体活动和认知活动对老年人简单及复杂认知任务表现的相对益处。参与者包括24名年轻人（18 - 27岁）、24名年轻老年人（65 - 74岁）、24名中年老年人（75 - 84岁）和24名老年老年人（85 - 92岁）。参与者记录了参与身体和认知刺激活动的时间量以及这些活动期间所付出的努力。他们还完成了一个视觉意象任务的简单版和复杂版。在活动和意象表现方面，与年龄相关的下降很明显。身体活动和认知活动都与更好的认知表现相关。此外，对于复杂任务而非简单任务，认知活动比身体活动是更强的预测因素。然而，在每个活动领域内，简单任务和复杂任务的表现之间没有显著差异。这些结果表明，身体和认知刺激在预防随年龄增长的认知衰退方面是有用的，但它们可能通过不同途径发挥作用。
