Brain endurance training improves sedentary older adults' cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued

Cognitive and physical performance is impaired by aging and fatigue. Cognitive and exercise training may mitigate such impairments. Accordingly, we investigated the effect of Brain Endurance Training (BET) - combined cognitive and exercise training - on cognitive and physical performance when fresh and fatigued in older adults.

Twenty-four healthy sedentary women (65-78 years) were randomly allocated to one of three training groups: BET, exercise training, and control (no training). The BET and exercise training groups completed the same physical training protocol comprising three 45-min exercise sessions (20-min resistance exercise plus 25-min endurance exercise) per week for eight weeks. The BET group completed a 20-min cognitive task prior to exercise tasks. Cognitive (tasks: psychomotor vigilance, Stroop) and physical (tests: walk, chair-stand, arm curl) performance was tested when fresh and fatigued (before and after a 30-min cognitive task) at weeks 0 (pre-test), 4 (mid-test), 8 (post-test), and 12 (follow-up test).

Cognitive and physical and performance was generally superior when fresh and fatigued at mid-test and post-test for both BET and exercise training groups compared to the control group. The BET group outperformed the exercise group when fatigued at mid-test and post-test both cognitively (always) and physically (sometimes). The pre-to-post changes in cognitive performance when fresh and fatigued averaged 3.7 % and 7.8 % for BET, 3.6 % and 4.5 % for exercise, and -0.4 % and 0.3 % for control groups. The corresponding changes in physical performance averaged 16.5 % and 29.9 % for BET, 13.8 % and 22.4 % for exercise, and 10.8 % and 7.1 % for control groups.

These findings show that BET can improve cognitive and physical performance in older adults.