The Effect of Brain Gym Exercises on working memory in Male Older Adults

As the age increases, the elderly suffers from cognitive disorders such as memory decline as a natural process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a period of brain gym exercises on working memory of male older adults.

In present semi-experimental study with pre-post-test with control group design, 30 elderly male were selected based on availability and randomly divided into two equal groups of 15 experimental (mean age:76.85±4.41 yr) and control (mean age:77.8±3.24 yr). Participants of both groups performed the digit Span Response test to evaluate the working memory in pretest and following 16 training sessions (only experimental group) in post-test. The experimental group performed eight weeks, twice a week and each session within 30 minutes and the control group performed nothing during this period. The data were analyzed using the Mix-MANOVA test and independent and dependent T-tests on the significance level of 0.05 using IBM SPSS22.

The results of Mix-ANOVA showed a significant tow-way interaction (P=0.0001) and independent and paired T-test revealed significant difference between the experimental and control groups in post-test (P=0.0001). Also the progress from pre to post-test was significant for experimental group (P=0.0001).

Based on present findings, it suggests to educators and practitioners in the sports to apply this new method of practice to improve work memory to perform tasks and activities.