Table Of ContentPhysical Activity, Aging and
Cognition
A Study of Effects of Physical Exercise on
Cognitive Functions of Older Adults
Dissertation to Achieve a Doctoral Grade of Natural
Sciences (Dr. rer. nat.) in Physiological Psychology
Department of Bielefeld University
Presented by
Gholam Reza Tazkari
Bielefeld, February 2015
First referee: Prof. Dr. Hans J. Markowitsch
Second referee: Prof. Dr. Christian Dobel
To
My Parents,
My Sisters and
My Iran
Acknowledgements
I would like to take the opportunity to thank those people who spent their time
and shared their knowledge for helping me to complete my thesis.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Hans J. Markowitsch who
always made it possible to read and discuss the different stages of this work.
Without his advice, making this work would have not been possible.
I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Christian Dobel, my second supervisor, for accepting
without hesitation to be an examiner for my work.
I would like to extend my thanks to Prof. Dr. med. Elke Zimmermann for her
kind willingness to be my third supervisor.
My special thanks to Dr. Sina kuehnel who came to my aid always.
I also would like to thank Dr. Simone Horstmann who helped me to learn the
neurocognitive tests.
Many thanks also go to all my colleagues, especially Dr. Philip Grewe, Dr.
Alonso Ortega and Dipl.-Psych. Sabine Borsutzky.
I wish to thank all subjects who participated in this study.
Also, I wish to thank department offices Cordula Heidbrede and Claudia
Haenig, as well as EDV administrators Wolfhard Skreczek and Jens Theine.
I would like to appreciate Marianne Jaffke for your help since the beginning
stages of finding participants until the end.
For their help, I want to thank Morteza Maski and Hajar Barzegarpour.
Especially, I wish to express my deep gratitude to my parents.
I wish to express my gratitude to my sisters, without their help this thesis would
probably have never been happened.
Sincere thanks to my daughter Iran for your patience.
Finally, I would like to thank the Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science at
Bielefeld University, and, especially, the Department of Physiological
Psychology.
My Dears, I am forever grateful to you.
Table of Contents i
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. i
Index of Figures ............................................................................................................... iv
Index of Tables ................................................................................................................. v
Abbreviations .................................................................................................................. vi
1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1
2 Theoretical background ............................................................................................ 4
2.1 Lifestyle and aging: Delay or acceleration of the aging process ........................... 6
2.2 Exercise and metabolism ....................................................................................... 9
2.2.1 Phosphagen system ..................................................................................... 9
2.2.2 Anaerobic glycolysis ................................................................................ 10
2.2.3 Aerobic system ......................................................................................... 12
2.3 Exercise and physical activity ............................................................................. 16
2.3.1 Physical fitness ......................................................................................... 16
2.3.2 Exercise intensity ...................................................................................... 18
2.3.3 Kinds of exercises ..................................................................................... 21
2.4 Memory ............................................................................................................... 23
2.4.1 Memory taxonomies ................................................................................. 27
2.4.2 Neural correlates ....................................................................................... 36
2.5 Learning theories related on procedural memory ................................................ 52
2.5.1 Fitts and Posner’s model .......................................................................... 52
2.5.2 Gentile’s model ........................................................................................ 54
2.5.3 Adams’ closed-loop theory ....................................................................... 54
2.5.4 Schmidt’s schema theory .......................................................................... 55
2.6 Aging, cognition and exercise ............................................................................. 56
2.6.1 Exercise and brain .................................................................................... 60
2.6.2 Brain and metabolism ............................................................................... 65
2.6.3 Metabolism and health ............................................................................. 70
2.7 Summary of literature .......................................................................................... 73
3 Questions and hypotheses ....................................................................................... 76
3.1 Questions ............................................................................................................. 77
3.2 Hypotheses .......................................................................................................... 78
3.2.1 Hypothesis I .......................................................................................... 78
3.2.2 Hypothesis II ........................................................................................ 80
Table of Contents ii
3.2.3 Hypothesis III....................................................................................... 82
3.2.4 Hypothesis IV ...................................................................................... 84
4 Method .................................................................................................................... 86
4.1 Present study ........................................................................................................ 86
4.2 Sampling method ................................................................................................. 87
4.3 Objectives ............................................................................................................ 87
4.4 Participants and Groups ....................................................................................... 87
4.5 Variables .............................................................................................................. 88
4.6 Groups and exercise protocols ............................................................................. 88
4.6.1 Control group (CG) .................................................................................. 89
4.6.2 Aerobic exercise group (AEG) ................................................................. 89
4.6.3 Anaerobic exercise group (ANEG) .......................................................... 90
4.6.4 Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test ......................................................... 93
4.6.5 Verbal Learning and Memory Test (VLMT) ........................................... 94
4.6.6 Mirror reading task ................................................................................... 94
4.6.7 Trail Making Test (TMT) ......................................................................... 96
4.6.8 Intellectual functions ................................................................................ 97
4.7 Physiological test ................................................................................................. 97
5 Results .................................................................................................................... 98
5.1 Samples and population ....................................................................................... 98
5.2 Procedure of study ............................................................................................... 98
5.3 Statistical analyses ............................................................................................... 99
5.3.1 Descriptive data ........................................................................................ 99
5.3.2 Data analysis ........................................................................................... 103
5.4 Results of visual memory (ROCF) .................................................................... 109
5.5 Results of Verbal Memory Test (VLMT).......................................................... 111
5.6 Results of mirror reading task ........................................................................... 114
5.7 Results of visual search, scanning and speed of information processing .......... 116
5.8 Results of visual search, scanning, mental flexibility and executive functions 117
5.9 Results of verbal intelligence ............................................................................ 118
5.10 Results of non-verbal intelligence ..................................................................... 119
6 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 120
6.1 The aerobic exercise condition and cognitions of sedentary older adults ........ 121
6.2 The anaerobic exercise condition and cognitions of sedentary older adults ... 127
6.3 The new procedural skill learning and cognitions of sedentary older adults .... 131
7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 135
Limitations .................................................................................................................... 138
Table of Contents iii
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 139
References .................................................................................................................... 144
Appendix A ....................................................................................................................... I
Appendix B .................................................................................................................. XVI
Appendix C ................................................................................................................. XVII
Appendix D ................................................................................................................ XXV
Appendix E .............................................................................................................. XXVII
Declaration…………………………………………………………… Last Page
Table of Contents iv
Index of Figures
Figure 1: Illustration of the main storage process………………………………. 24
Figure 2: Multi-store model……………………………………………………. 29
Figure 3: The relation between short- and long-term memory……………… 30
Figure 4: The five memory systems………………………………………… 34
Figure 5: Squires taxonomy of long-term memory ………………………. 35
Figure 6: The Papez circuit ………..………………………………………. 39
Figure 7: Structure of the basal ganglia ……………………………………… 45
Figure 8: The attitude of the basal ganglia circuit ………………………….. 46
Figure 9: Fitts and Posner’s three stage models of motor learning…………… 53
Figure 10: Means and standard deviations of groups aged ………………….. 100
Figure 11: Frequency of participants in groups ……………………………… 100
Figure 12: Distribution of gender participants in groups …………………….. 101
Figure 13: Distribution of education levels of participants in groups ……….. 101
Figure 14: Frequency of participants on the basis of age ……………………. 102
Figure 15: Distribution of age in the groups ………………………………… 102
Figure 16: Distribution of age in the groups …………………………………. 103
Figure 17: Interventions of exercise on short-term visual memory…………….110
Figure 18: Interventions of exercise on long-term visual memory …………… 110
Figure 19: Interventions of exercise on short-term verbal memory………….. 111
Figure 20: Interventions of exercise on recall after learning in VLMT………. 112
Figure 21: Interventions of exercise on recall after interference in VLMT….. 113
Figure 22: Interventions of exercise on delayed recall in VLMT……………...113
Figure 23: Interventions of exercise on priming of mirror Task……………… 114
Figure 24: Interventions of exercise on procedural of mirror task …………… 115
Figure 25: Interventions of exercise on interference of mirror task .………… 116
Figure 26: Interventions of exercise on speed of information processing…… 117
Figure 27: Interventions of exercise on mental flexibilit……………………… 118
Figure 28: Interventions of exercise on verbal intelligence …………………… 118
Figure 29: Interventions of exercise on non-verbal intelligence ……………… 119
Table of Contents v
Index of Tables
Table 1: Memory systems and the brain regions ……………………………… 51
Table 2: Summary of exercise and cognition studies……………………………73
Table 3: One example of the mirror reading task items…………………………95
Table 4: Descriptive data of the participants…………………………………… 99
Table 5: Means and standard deviations of variables ………………………… 104
Table 6: Pairwise comparisons of groups………………………..……………..107
Appendix A, Raw data of the study………………………………………………I
Appendix C, One-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests……………………....XVII
