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. 2022 May 3:10:797351.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.797351. eCollection 2022.

Determining Whether Tai Chi Chuan Is Related to the Updating Function in Older Adults: Differences Between Practitioners and Controls

Yuan Yang  1 , Tingting Chen  2 , Chen Wang  3   4 , Ji Zhang  3   4 , Xiaoxia Yuan  3   4 , Xiaoke Zhong  3   4 , Shoufu Yan  5 , Changhao Jiang  3   4   5
Affiliations

Determining Whether Tai Chi Chuan Is Related to the Updating Function in Older Adults: Differences Between Practitioners and Controls

Yuan Yang et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) is an effective method for delaying cognitive decline in older adults. However, in older adults, the association between long-term TCC practice and working memory updating has not been extensively studied.

Objective: This cross-sectional study investigated how updating function operationalized via Reaction Times (RTs) and Accuracy Rates (ARs) of N-Back tasks being measured in a laboratory setting is related to long term practice of TCC.

Methods: Twenty-six healthy elderly people participated in this experiment. According to the duration of time TCC was practiced, 13 subjects in the TCC group had more than 5 years of experience with TCC exercise, and 13 elderly subjects who had not been systematically exposed to mind-body exercise were assigned to the control group. The N-back task was administered to every participant to evaluate the updating function.

Results: The TCC group had faster RTs than the control group (p < 0.05). For the 1-back task, the TCC group showed faster RTs than the control group; for the 2-back task, the TCC group exhibited faster RTs than the control group. The TCC group had higher ARs than the control group (p < 0.05). For the 1-back task, the TCC group showed higher ARs than the control group; for the 2-back task, the TCC group exhibited higher ARs than the control group.

Conclusions: Long-term TCC practitioners exhibit a better updating function as compared to controls who did not practice TCC. Thus, our findings suggest that long-term TCC positively influences the updating function of older adults, making it, in turn, an effective mind-body exercise to maintain specific aspects of cognitive functioning.

Keywords: Accuracy Rates (ARs); Reaction Times (RTs); Tai Chi Chuan; older adults; updating function.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the study design.
Figure 2
Figure 2
N-back task flow chart.
Figure 3
Figure 3
In the 1-back task, participants need to determine whether a letter appears the same as the one before it. In the 2-back task, participants need to determine whether a letter appears the same as the two before it. If the same, press “F”; if different, press “J”. The maximum reaction time is 1000 ms.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of RTs between the two groups (TCC vs. controls) during the N-back task (A: 1-back; B: 2-back).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison of ARs between the two groups (TCC vs. controls) during the N-back task (A: 1-back; B: 2-back).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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