ArticleEuropean review of aging and physical activity : official journal of the European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity2024
Protective effects of physical activity on episodic memory during aging are explained by executive functioning.
Article in European review of aging and physical activity : official journal of the European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Moderating role of executive function in the relationship between specific white matter changes and long-term delayed recall in aMCI patients.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Article
- Physical activity mediates age differences in cognition among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- Enhancing memory through physical activity: beneficial effect on internal memory strategy use in older adults.Psychological research · 2025Article
- Effects of low-intensity home-based exercise on cognition in older persons with mild cognitive impairment: a direct comparison of aerobic versus resistance exercises using a randomized controlled trial design.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
Aging is marked by a memory decline related to an executive function decline. Physical activity (PA) has beneficial effects on both executive functions and memory, especially in aging. The protective effects of PA on these two cognitive abilities have always been studied separately, despite the well-established relationship between memory and executive functions. Our objective was to explore whether the benefits of PA on memory could be explained by reduced age-related changes in executive functions.Nineteen young adults (27.16 years old) and 25 older adults (69.64 years old) performed a resource-dependent memory task, three executive tasks and completed a PA questionnaire (measuring sports and leisure PA). Age group and PA effects on memory and executive performance were analyzed with generalized linear models. Mediation analyses were calculated using method of causal steps approach with a non-parametric bootstrapping procedure.The results confirmed the effects of age and PA on memory and executive performance. A significant interaction confirmed the protective effect of PA on age-related cognitive performance. PA was positively correlated with performance in both memory and executive tasks, but only in the older adults. Although each predictor alone (age, executive functions and PA) significantly explained memory performance in older adults, only the effect of PA on memory performance remained significant when all the predictors were introduced in the analyses.PA mediates the effects of age and executive functions on memory performance. This suggests that PA protects older adults against memory decline by reducing the decline in executive functioning.
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