The key to staying mentally sharp and physically fit into old age may be a mental exercise designed to uncover Cold War spies.
In the mid-to-late 20th century, American authorities were wary of Russian spies hiding within the government and stealing state secrets.
To reveal these, the suspected spies were given a brain teaser involving color and word combinations to reveal whether Russian was their native language.
Researchers now believe a similar series of tasks, called brain endurance training (BET), could be used in older adults to stave off dementia and cognitive decline.
Scientists in the UK and Spain found that older adults who took part in BET exercises improved their cognitive and physical performance.
Of the 24 older women tested, the BET group showed more pronounced gains in tasks such as walking, chair standing, and arm curls, and improved cognitive performance in attention tasks.
The Stroop test requires participants to name the ink color of a word while ignoring the word itself, which is difficult because reading is an automatic process. The Cold War test was supposed to have been conducted in Russian, but the above is the English version of the exercise.
BET also increased resilience to mental fatigue and helped participants improve their performance after performing demanding cognitive tasks. And the benefits were still evident at the 1-month follow-up.
An example of BET is the Stroop test. In this test, people are shown a series of colored words that are spelled in a different color than the one in which they are written.
Candidates are asked to name the color of ink in which each word is written, rather than the word itself.
For example, the word “blue” may be written in red ink, or the word “yellow” may be written in purple.
The test taker’s task is not to read the words, but to say the name of the ink color and do it as quickly as possible.
This test is rumored to have been used by Americans to identify spies during the Cold War.
Spies may have difficulty with response inhibition (the ability to inhibit automatic responses) if they are feeling anxious or focused on hiding their true identity.
The words were written in Russian, so even non-Russian speakers could easily identify the colors without being confused by the meaning of the words.
However, Russian speakers took longer to respond because they automatically processed the meanings of the words, revealing their linguistic abilities and exposing them as spies.
British and Spanish researchers did not screen for spies, but they tested this type of cognitive processing in 24 healthy women aged 65 to 78 living in rural communities in Spain.
The women were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group received BET and physical training, the other group received only physical exercise training, and the third control group received no training.
Researchers assessed participants’ physical and mental health before the experiment began, reviewed their progress at the end of weeks 4 and 8, and again during a follow-up assessment four weeks later. I checked.
BET also increased resilience to mental fatigue and helped older women in rural Spain perform better after cognitive tasks, an effect that was still evident at a 1-month follow-up .
The researchers measured respondents’ level of fatigue by the number of correct answers they gave to the Stroop test over a 45-second period.
They also measured reaction times (in milliseconds), during which participants had to react as quickly as possible to a visual stimulus. Faster reactions indicate less fatigue.
Assessments were conducted before and after the cognitive tasks to assess how mental fatigue affected performance.
Both the BET and exercise-only groups completed the same physical training routine consisting of three 45-minute sessions per week for 8 weeks over a 12-week period.
Each session includes 20 minutes of strength training, such as squats and bicep curls, and 25 minutes of walking.
All participants took the Stroop test after exercise. The main difference was that the BET group also completed a Stroop test and a reaction time test before each workout.
As part of the Stroop test, the women were asked to name the ink color while ignoring the actual words, given that reading words in a language they speak fluently is an automatic process. , this is a difficult problem.
When colors don’t match words, the brain has a hard time making sense of this conflicting information, and it prioritizes one cognitive process over another, much like when you try to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time. Must be prioritized.
Older adults who took the Stroop test before exercise had improved reaction times, performed better at physical tasks such as arm curls, and ran farther in 6 minutes compared to older adults who did not receive BET training. I found out that I walked.
The researchers also showed that after older adults took the Stroop test, their movements became faster and more accurate over the course of the experiment, even when they were fatigued. BET training also improved reaction times.
At mid-test, end-point, and follow-up time points, the BET group consistently performed better than the exercise-only and control groups in arm curl and walking endurance.
Participants in the BET group also reported feeling less tired than the control group, especially during and after the test, suggesting that mental exercises make the body more resistant to fatigue.
The researchers said, “Supporting our third research hypothesis, the results of this study demonstrate for the first time that BET is an effective countermeasure against mental fatigue and its negative impact on performance in older adults. ” he said.
BET is recommended for older adults because they improve performance and reduce the negative effects of mental fatigue on behavior, potentially improving balance control and reducing the risk of fatal falls and accidents. He added that it is possible.
