College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
School of Education, Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 May 3;10:797351. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.797351. eCollection 2022.
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.
This cross-sectional study investigated how updating function operationalized 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.
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.
The TCC group had faster RTs than the control group ( < 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 ( < 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.
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.
太极拳（TCC）是一种延缓老年人认知能力下降的有效方法。然而，在老年人中，长期 TCC 练习与工作记忆更新之间的关系尚未得到广泛研究。
本横断面研究调查了实验室中 N 回任务的反应时（RTs）和准确率（ARs）更新功能与长期 TCC 练习之间的关系。
26 名健康老年人参与了这项实验。根据 TCC 练习的时间长短，TCC 组的 13 名受试者有超过 5 年的 TCC 运动经验，而 13 名未系统接触身心锻炼的老年受试者被分配到对照组。每位参与者都接受了 N 回任务，以评估更新功能。
TCC 组的 RTs 快于对照组（<0.05）。对于 1 回任务，TCC 组的 RTs 快于对照组；对于 2 回任务，TCC 组的 RTs 快于对照组。TCC 组的 ARs 高于对照组（<0.05）。对于 1 回任务，TCC 组的 ARs 高于对照组；对于 2 回任务，TCC 组的 ARs 高于对照组。
与未练习 TCC 的对照组相比，长期 TCC 练习者表现出更好的更新功能。因此，我们的发现表明，长期 TCC 积极影响老年人的更新功能，从而使其成为保持认知功能特定方面的有效身心锻炼。
