summary: Improved physical fitness improves language comprehension in the elderly. Over six months, monolingual participants who followed a simple exercise program detected words 7% faster on language tests, highlighting the cognitive benefits of fitness.
This finding highlights the importance of regular exercise for healthy aging and everyday communication skills. Interestingly, bilingual participants did not show similar improvements, suggesting that processing multiple languages requires unique cognitive demands.
Important facts:
- Linking fitness and cognition: Monolingual participants improved their language comprehension speed by 7% after 6 months of exercise.
- Bilingual variations: Bilingual participants did not show significant language gains despite increased fitness, indicating unique cognitive demands.
- Simple routine: Participants engaged in easy-to-do exercises such as uphill walking and aerobic intervals.
sauce: University of Birmingham
The first study to demonstrate this effect found that increased physical fitness levels were causally linked to improved language comprehension.
In a study published in the journal Ageing, Neuropsychology and Cognition, conducted by researchers at the University of Agder in Norway and the University of Birmingham in the UK, monolingual older adults who completed a six-month exercise program were compared to controls. They were found to be able to complete language comprehension tests faster than those who did so. group.
Participants who followed a 6-month home-based exercise program received one circuit training session and two aerobic exercise interval sessions (either uphill walking, jogging, or running) per week. was asked to do it.
After the study, both monolingual and bilingual participants’ exercise groups significantly improved their fitness levels as measured by VO2. maximum score.
Study participants were tested before and after the exercise on their ability to recognize target words in spoken language. Monolingual participants who followed the motor plan were 7% faster at detecting correct words after their fitness increased.
Study author Dr Katrien Segard, from the University of Birmingham’s Department of Psychology, said:
“This is the first study to our knowledge to establish a causal link between increased fitness and language processing, particularly in older adults.
“Language processing is an important and interesting field of research. Communication ability is a very important function in everyone’s daily life.
“Results in the monolingual group show that improved fitness is associated with improved cognition, highlighting how important regular exercise is for healthy aging. I’m doing it.
“The exercise plans participants followed were neither complex nor demanding, and many participants were able to adapt the program by making simple adjustments to their daily routine, such as incorporating a brisk walk uphill into their day. was able to complete.
Although an increase in VO2 was seen among the bilingual participants in the study. maximum Scores in the exercise group were not associated with improvements in language comprehension test scores, and the results were very similar to the control group.
This was despite the fact that the test was administered in the native language of bilingual speakers.
Dr. Eunice Fernandes from the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation at the University of Agder and corresponding author said:
“We found different results in the bilingual group than in the monolingual group, which is most likely due to the different cognitive demands associated with language processing when adding a second language.
“It’s important to note that among the bilingual group, there were no negative effects of increased fitness. This suggests that there is something more complex going on in bilingual brains that is unaffected when it comes to language processing. This supports existing research showing that “interventions.” “
Funding: This research was supported by the Research Council of Norway.
About this language/movement/aging research news
author: Tim Mayo
sauce: University of Birmingham
contact: Tim Mayo – University of Birmingham
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Effects of improving fitness through exercise training on language comprehension in monolingual and bilingual older adults: A randomized controlled trial.” written by Katrien Segaert et al. Neuropsychology and cognition of aging
abstract
Effects of improving fitness through exercise training on language comprehension in monolingual and bilingual older adults: A randomized controlled trial.
Exercise training has been proposed to counter age-related cognitive decline through improved cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF hypothesis).
Research has focused on cognitive domains such as attention and processing speed, and one cross-sectional study reported a positive relationship between CRF and language production in older adults.
In a randomized controlled trial, we investigated whether these benefits extend to language comprehension in healthy older adults and whether bilinguals, who face higher language processing costs, show greater benefits than monolinguals.
Eighty older English monolinguals and 80 older Norwegian-English bilinguals were randomly assigned to an exercise training group or a passive control group for 6 months.
CRF (VO2) was evaluated.peak) and language comprehension (reaction times to spoken language monitoring) in the first language (L1, all participants) and second language (L2, bilinguals only) before and after intervention.
We found that monolinguals in the training group (compared to the control group) had faster comprehension after the intervention.
Additionally, this effect was mediated by exercise-induced increases in VO2.peaksupporting the CRF hypothesis. This extends previous cross-sectional studies and establishes a causal relationship between motor training and speed of comprehension in older monolinguals.
However, despite inducing an increase in VO2,peakmotor training had no effect on comprehension in bilinguals (L1 or L2), and bilinguals in both groups were slower in comprehension after the intervention period.
Exploratory analyzes suggested that this decline may be driven by participants with lower L2 proficiency, but that bilingual language processing may indeed influence motor training and the resulting improvement in CRF. Further research is needed to determine whether this is the case.
