Trial reportEuropean journal of sport science2025
Effects of Exergame Training on Executive Function and Heart Rate Variability in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Study.
Trial report in European journal of sport science, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Digital Physical Exercise Interventions for Cognitive Functions in Older Adults: Systematic Review and Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- From Fitness to Cognition: Machine-Learning Prediction of Cognitive Performance Using Physiological Parameters in Healthy Adults.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2026Article
- Feasibility of home-based, low-intensity exergame on cognitive function of older adults with mild cognitive impairment.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Exergame has become widely popular and offers great levels of cognitive demands, thus may facilitate cognitive benefits. In addition, researchers have proposed that cardiac autonomic function, assessed via heart rate variability (HRV), is associated with cognitive executive function. However, few exergame training studies have investigated this relationship. This study aimed to investigate the effects of 10-week exergame training on executive function and HRV in middle-aged and older adults. Ninety-one participants were randomly assigned to either an exergame training group (63.73 ± 4.48 years) or a control group (62.46 ± 4.77 years). The training program was 50 min per session, twice per week for 10 weeks. The control group was instructed to maintain their usual lifestyle. All participants completed questionnaires and received assessments of executive functions and electrocardiography at baseline and postintervention. Results revealed significant group-by-time interaction effects for the three indices of the digit span test and the total initiation time of the Tower of London task with better postintervention performances achieved by the exergame group. The 6 min walk test also improved significantly in the exergame group but not in the control group. No significant change in HRV was observed for both groups. There were significant correlations between HRV and digit span test scores. Our results suggest that the 10-week exergame training program was effective in improving executive functions of working memory, inhibitory control, and planning ability as well as aerobic fitness in middle-aged and older adults. Moreover, HRV was associated with improved executive function.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.