Engaging in physical activity and exercise is one of the important ways for health promotion. However, older adults are often physically inactive or have a sedentary lifestyle and have poor ...compliance with physical activity. Exergaming program with their unique advantages could make physical activity a more joyful experience and motivate older adults to participate in physical activity. Promoting older adults' health through engagement in exergaming programs is still in the early stage, and still faces many challenges. Analyzing the challenges and difficulties faced by exergaming program for older adults and exploring in-depth strategies to promote the implementation of exergaming program for older adults are of great significance for the design and implementation of sports games for older adults.
1759 Madam, We have read the article titled “Comparison of exergaming and vestibular training on gaze stability, balance, and gait performance of older adults: A single blind randomized control trial ...(RCT)” by Bukhari et al with great interest.1. They have correctly highlighted the issue of poor balance and gait instability in the elderly in Pakistan which gets neglected due to lack of training and knowledge for most of the health care professionals and physicians. They used easy and free assessment tools like Dynamic gait index , timed up and go test and Dynamic Visual Acuity Test which can easily be applied in low resource settings like Pakistan. They have used exergaming as a management strategy. This is now widely available in the country commercially and can help patients with balance and gait disorders. We performed a critical analysis of this RCT using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Randomised Controlled Trials Checklist (https:// caspuk. net/wpcontent/uploads/2020/10/CASP_RCT_Checklist _PDF_Fillable_Form.pdf) and The CONSORT (CONsolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) 2010 guidelines.2 In addition, experts have already highlighted certain issues with methodology in rehabilitation trials which were also detected in this article.3 These require clarification and deliberation. Continue..
1759 Madam, We have read the article titled “Comparison of exergaming and vestibular training on gaze stability, balance, and gait performance of older adults: A single blind randomized control trial ...(RCT)” by Bukhari et al with great interest.1. They have correctly highlighted the issue of poor balance and gait instability in the elderly in Pakistan which gets neglected due to lack of training and knowledge for most of the health care professionals and physicians. They used easy and free assessment tools like Dynamic gait index , timed up and go test and Dynamic Visual Acuity Test which can easily be applied in low resource settings like Pakistan. They have used exergaming as a management strategy. This is now widely available in the country commercially and can help patients with balance and gait disorders. We performed a critical analysis of this RCT using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Randomised Controlled Trials Checklist (https:// caspuk. net/wpcontent/uploads/2020/10/CASP_RCT_Checklist _PDF_Fillable_Form.pdf) and The CONSORT (CONsolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) 2010 guidelines.2 In addition, experts have already highlighted certain issues with methodology in rehabilitation trials which were also detected in this article.3 These require clarification and deliberation. Continue..
Nowadays, the importance of early active patient mobilization in the recovery and rehabilitation phase has increased significantly. One way to involve patients in the treatment is a gamification-like ...approach, which is one of the methods of motivation in various life processes. This article shows a system prototype for patients who require physical activity because of active early mobilization after medical interventions or during illness. Bedridden patients and people with a sedentary lifestyle (predominantly lying in bed) are also potential users. The main idea for the concept was non-contact system implementation for the patients making them feel effortless during its usage. The system consists of three related parts: hardware, software, and game application. To test the relevance and coherence of the system, it was used by 35 people. The participants were asked to play a video game requiring them to make body movements while lying down. Then they were asked to take part in a small survey to evaluate the system's usability. As a result, we offer a prototype consisting of hardware and software parts that can increase and diversify physical activity during active early mobilization of patients and prevent the occurrence of possible health problems due to predominantly low activity. The proposed design can be possibly implemented in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and even at home.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
A systematic review and meta-analysis with narrative synthesis was conducted to evaluate the impact of dance exergaming on older adults' health-related outcomes and its feasibility, usability, and ...safety.
PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, and Google Scholar were searched from inception to December 7, 2023. Interventional studies using immersive or nonimmersive virtual reality platforms conducted on older adults ≥60 years old were eligible. Meta-analysis was conducted using the random effects model by pooling mean differences (MD) or standardized mean differences. Outcomes were narratively synthesized when meta-analysis was not possible.
Forty-three articles from 37 studies were included (n = 1 139 participants at baseline). Postintervention, dynamic balance measured using Berg Balance Scale (pooled MD = 2.65, 95% CI: 1.73-3.57, p < .0001), Timed-Up-and-Go times (pooled MD = -1.04, 95% CI: -2.06 to -0.03, p = .04), choice stepping reaction time (pooled MD = -92.48, 95% CI: -167.30 to -17.67, p = .02), and movement time (pooled MD = -50.33, 95% CI: -83.34 to -17.33, p = .003) were significantly better in the experimental group compared to the control group. Adherence ranged from 76.5% to 100%, whereas attrition ranged from 9.1% to 31.9%. Most participants completed the intervention with no or minimal adverse effects.
Dance exergames are effective, feasible, usable, and safe for older adults. Further research is needed as the findings were limited by small sample sizes. Many studies could not be included in the meta-analysis as outcomes were too varied.
Human aging is associated with structural and functional brain deteriorations and a corresponding cognitive decline. Exergaming (i.e., physically active video-gaming) has been supposed to attenuate ...age-related brain deteriorations and may even improve cognitive functions in healthy older adults. Effects of exergaming, however, vary largely across studies. Moreover, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms by which exergaming may affect cognitive and brain function are still poorly understood. Therefore, we systematically reviewed the effects of exergame interventions on cognitive outcomes and neurophysiological correlates in healthy older adults (>60 years). After screening 2709 studies (Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Pubmed, Scopus), we found 15 eligible studies, four of which comprised neurophysiological measures. Most studies reported within group improvements in exergamers and favorable interaction effects compared to passive controls. Fewer studies found superior effects of exergaming over physically active control groups and, if so, solely for executive functions. Regarding individual cognitive domains, results showed no consistence. Positive effects on neurophysiological outcomes were present in all respective studies. In summary, exergaming seems to be equally or slightly more effective than other physical interventions on cognitive functions in healthy older adults. Tailored interventions using well-considered exergames and intervention designs, however, may result in more distinct effects on cognitive functions.
Acute bouts of exercise have the potential to benefit children’s cognition. Inconsistent evidence on the role of qualitative exercise task characteristics calls for further investigation of the ...cognitive challenge level in exercise. Thus, the study aim was to investigate which “dose” of cognitive challenge in acute exercise benefits children’s cognition, also exploring the moderating role of individual characteristics. In a within-subject experimental design, 103 children (Mage = 11.1, SD = 0.9, 48% female) participated weekly in one of three 15-min exergames followed by an Attention Network task. Exergame sessions were designed to keep physical intensity constant (65% HRmax) and to have different cognitive challenge levels (low, mid, high; adapted to the ongoing individual performance). ANOVAs performed on variables that reflect the individual functioning of attention networks revealed a significant effect of cognitive challenge on executive control efficiency (reaction time performances; p = .014, ƞ2p = .08), with better performances after the high-challenge condition compared to lower ones (ps < .015), whereas alerting and orienting were unaffected by cognitive challenge (ps > .05). ANOVAs performed on variables that reflect the interactive functioning of attention networks revealed that biological sex moderated cognitive challenge effects. For males only, the cognitive challenge level influenced the interactive functioning of executive control and orienting networks (p = .004; ƞ2p = .07). Results suggest that an individualized and adaptive cognitively high-challenging bout of exercise is more beneficial to children’s executive control than less challenging ones. For males, the cognitive challenge in an acute bout seems beneficial to maintain executive control efficiency also when spatial attention resources cannot be validly allocated in advance. Results are interpreted referring to the cognitive stimulation hypothesis and arousal theory.
•An acute cognitively challenging bout of exercise benefited children’s executive control.•Compared to cognitively less challenging bouts, the high-challenging exercise fostered executive control the most.•The cognitive challenge level of acute bouts of exercise did not affect alerting or orienting.•Biological sex moderated acute exercise effects on the interactive functioning of executive control and orienting networks.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Background
While children with Autism Spectrum Disorder show heterogeneous cognitive profiles, they share common deficits in social-cognitive abilities and executive function. Moderate endurance ...exercise is known to elicit changes in the psychophysiological state, which can translate into immediate, but transient benefits for both cognitive domains. However, the cognitive response of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to acute exercise remains unclear. We addressed this research deficit by investigating the effects of a single endurance exercise session on face recognition abilities and affective response inhibition.
Methods
We recruited 30 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder aged 7 to 12 years from local clinicals in Basel, Switzerland and via social media. Using a randomized cross-over design, participants completed a moderately-intense, 20-min exercise session on a cycling ergometer and control condition, which involved sitting on the ergometer. We collected heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion during these sessions. Before and after the experimental conditions, participants completed two computerized cognitive tasks. During the Mooney Face Recognition task, they had to categorize stimuli into faces and objects. In the affective Go/NoGo task, participants were instructed to inhibit their response to either sad or happy faces and press a button to all other faces.
Results
The experimental manipulation was successful as a main effect of condition indicated a higher heart rate and rating of perceived exertion in the exercise compared to the control condition. With regard to cognitive performance, the repeated measures ANOVA revealed an interaction of time and condition for the Mooney Face Recognition task, indicating an increase in reaction time in the exercise compared to the control condition. In contrast, no interaction of time and condition was found for accuracy on this task as well as accuracy and reaction time on the affective Go/NoGo task.
Conclusion
In children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, a single exercise does not seem to benefit social-cognitive abilities and executive function temporarily. A short cycling bout rather impairs the ability to recognize faces, suggesting that the maintenance of supervised exercise demands a set of joint resources. As these results are in conflict with the well-documented benefit of acute exercise in healthy populations, the atypical cognitive response in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder indicates a moderating role of this neurodevelopmental condition.
Aim
Investigate the effect of various intensities of physical activity (PA) on subsequent positive and negative emotions of fourth- to sixth-grade students.
Background
PA can positively affect ...children’s mood and emotions and this has previously been suggested as one of the mechanisms by which PA promotes mental health, including cognitive function and well-being (the psychosocial hypothesis, Lubans et al., 2016). In particular, moderate (MPA) and vigorous (VPA) activity have been found to positively affect emotions in children and adolescents (e.g. Bourke et al., 2021; Dunton et al., 2014), with positive emotions more strongly affected by acute PA than negative ones (Bourke et al., 2021).
Method
Seventy-seven children in fourth to sixth grade from four primary schools in Oxfordshire (United Kingdom) took part in six physical education (PE) lessons. PE lessons varied in their targeted intensity (low, medium, and high) and complexity (each intensity once at low and once at high complexity). During the classroom lesson before and after each physical education lesson, participants reported their emotional state three times via an app on tablets, by rating eight emotions on a 5-point Likert scale.
Results
Both positive and negative emotions during PE predicted emotions in the classroom after PE. Greater PE lesson enjoyment led to increased positive emotions during PE, and more positive emotions were reported in the classroom after PE when lessons were higher in MPA. VPA led to decreased positive emotions during PE. On the other hand, negative emotions at the end of PE or in the classroom after PE were not affected by moderate (MPA) or vigorous (VPA) PA during PE, or the participants’ enjoyment of the PE lesson. Light PA did not have any significant effect on negative or positive emotions during or after PE. PA intensity did not affect PE lesson enjoyment.
Conclusion
Negative emotions were not affected by any PA intensity. Positive emotions responded differently depending on PA intensity. Independent of intensity, PE lesson enjoyment strongly improved positive emotions.
References
Bourke, M., Hilland, T. A., & Craike, M. (2021). A systematic review of the within-person association between physical activity and affect in children’s and adolescents’ daily lives. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 52, Article 101825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101825
Dunton, G. F., Huh, J., Leventhal, A. M., Riggs, N., Hedeker, D., Spruijt-Metz, D., & Pentz, M. A. (2014). Momentary assessment of affect, physical feeling states, and physical activity in children. Health Psychology, 33(3), 255-263. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032640
Lubans, D., Richards, J., Hillman, C., Faulkner, G., Beauchamp, M., Nilsson, M., Kelly, P., Smith, J., Raine, L., & Biddle, S. (2016). Physical activity for cognitive and mental health in youth: A systematic review of mechanisms. Pediatrics, 138(3), 1642–1656. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1642
A growing body of research shows beneficial after effects of acute (i.e., single bouts of) physical activity on cognitive performance across different populations. Meta-analytic reviews typically ...find small effect sizes, however, the research in this area varies significantly regarding physical activity characteristics, measures of cognitive performance, investigated populations, and methodological strength of the work. Therefore, this symposium aims to look at potential mediators (e.g., physical activity characteristics, measures of cognitive performance, positive affect) and moderators (e.g., different populations) that might influence acute effects of physical activity on cognitive performance.
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