Acute exercise performed close to the anaerobic threshold improves cognitive performance in elderly females
Braz. j. med. biol. res
; 42(5): 458-464, May 2009. tab
Article
en En
| LILACS
| ID: lil-511336
Biblioteca responsable:
BR1.1
ABSTRACT
The objective of the present study was to compare the effect of acute exercise performed at different intensities in relation to the anaerobic threshold (AT) on abilities requiring control of executive functions or alertness in physically active elderly females. Forty-eight physically active elderly females (63.8 ± 4.6 years old) were assigned to one of four groups by drawing lots control group without exercise or trial groups with exercise performed at 60, 90, or 110 percent of AT (watts) and submitted to 5 cognitive tests before and after exercise. Following cognitive pretesting, an incremental cycle ergometer test was conducted to determine AT using a fixed blood lactate concentration of 3.5 mmol/L as cutoff. Acute exercise executed at 90 percent of AT resulted in significant (P < 0.05, ANOVA) improvement in the performance of executive functions when compared to control in 3 of 5 tests (verbal fluency, Tower of Hanoi test (number of movements), and Trail Making test B). Exercising at 60 percent of AT did not improve results of any tests for executive functions, whereas exercise executed at 110 percent of AT only improved the performance in one of these tests (verbal fluency) compared to control. Women from all trial groups exhibited a remarkable reduction in the Simple Response Time (alertness) test (P = 0.001). Thus, physical exercise performed close to AT is more effective to improve cognitive processing of older women even if conducted acutely, and using a customized exercise prescription based on the anaerobic threshold should optimize the beneficial effects.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
LILACS
Asunto principal:
Umbral Anaerobio
/
Ejercicio Físico
/
Cognición
Tipo de estudio:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspecto:
Equity_inequality
Límite:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Braz. j. med. biol. res
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
MEDICINA
Año:
2009
Tipo del documento:
Article
/
Project document
País de afiliación:
Brasil
Pais de publicación:
Brasil