Effects of working memory training on cognition and balance in elderly

• Autor(a) principal: Barros,Vanessa Novaes
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Porto,Camila de Assis, Negrão,José Virgilino
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/87
• topic: Aged, Memory disorders, Memory; Short-term memory.

<p><b>OBJECTIVE:</b> This study aimed at identifying the effects of working memory training in cognition as a whole, and relate them to optimize the balance in elderly people.<br> <b>MeTHODS:</b> The training was done thought Simon Task and Digit Span during 12 sessions. Thirteen elderly people underwent cognitive (Mini-mental state examination (MMSE), clock test and verbal fluency) and balance evaluations (Berg balance scale and Dynamic gait index) before and after training to comparison. They were divided in two groups, according to the score of MMSE - elderly people without cognitive impairment and elderly people with cognitive impairment.<br> <b>RESULT:</b> In the group of elderly people without cognitive impairment, we observed a statistically significant increasing in Mini-mental State score, verbal fluency test and dynamic gait index. In the group of elderly people with cognitive impairment, only the Mini-mental State Examination showed a statistically significant improvement.<br> <b>CONCLUSION:</b> The working memory training optimize the performance of other cognitive components, especially attention and calculation, and of the own working memory in both groups. The working memory training was able to optimize the dynamic balance in groups of elderly without disorder.</p>