LONDON -- The research led by the University of Birmingham has revealed
that healthy older people who exercise regularly are less likely to experience
a "tip-of-the-tongue" moment when it comes to remembering things.
The study, the first of its kind to investigate the relationship
between aerobic fitness levels and temporary cognitive lapses, showed healthy
older people who exercise regularly are less inclined to struggle to find words
to express themselves.
People in a tip-of-the-tongue state have a strong conviction that they
know a word, but are unable to produce it, and this phenomenon occurs more
frequently as people grow older.
The Birmingham study, carried out in collaboration with the University
of Agder in Norway, the University of Leuven in Belgium and King's College
London, measured the occurrence of tip-of-the-tongue states in a
psycholinguistic experiment.
The study saw a group of healthy adults with average ages of between 67
and 70 being compared in a "tip-of-the-tongue" language test to young
people in their early 20s.
They were asked to name famous people in Britain, such as authors,
politicians and actors, based on 20 questions.
The participants also underwent a static bike cycling test to quantify
their ability to consume oxygen and their resulting individual aerobic fitness
levels.
Lead author Dr. Katrien Segaert, of the University of Birmingham's
School of Psychology, said: "Older adults free from medical diseases still
experience age-related cognitive decline.
"Significantly, what we found was that the degree of decline is
related to one's aerobic fitness. In our study, the higher the older adults'
aerobic fitness level, the lower the probability of experiencing a
tip-of-the-tongue state.
"Importantly, our results also showed that the relationship
between the frequency of tip-of-the-tongue occurrences and aerobic fitness
levels exists over and above the influence of a person's age and vocabulary
size."
Segaert added that older adults sometimes worry that tip-of-the-tongue
states indicate serious memory problems but this is a misconception
"Tip-of-the-tongue states are not associated with memory loss. In
fact, older adults usually have a much larger vocabulary than young adults.
Instead, tip-of-the-tongue states occur when the meaning of a word is available
in our memory, but the sound form of the word can temporarily not be
accessed."
She said she hoped the study would add weight to public health messages
that regular exercise is important to ensure healthy ageing.
The research has been published in the latest edition of the journal,
Scientific Reports. (Xinhua)
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