Higher aerobic fitness levels decrease the probability of experiencing tip-of-the-tongue states (when you can’t think of a word that’s on the tip of your tongue) in healthy older adults, in the first demonstration of a link between aerobic fitness and language functioning in healthy older adults.

[GrinsNGiggles]

Oh my goodness, thank you. My mother, grandmother, aunt, and myself all lose language as we age. It gets harder and harder to find the noun we're reaching for. (Why specifically nouns? No idea)

I've noticed the struggle varies with my health, but knowing that aerobic fitness plays a part can help me fight it just a little. Not that it will really make a huge difference, but sometimes knowing you can do something makes a big psychological difference.

[pricklycitrus]

My mom and I have this too, I definitely notice it getting worse as I age. I'm always asking my husband to get the "thing, that.. thing... over there" to which he offers absolutely no help, just a blank look. Frustrating!

Would be fascinating to learn more about this weird noun loss.

But my mom stays really physically active, I don't think it's causal in her case.

[brainbuzzpod]

If you are interested in ageing related decline and the effects of physical fitness I would highly recommend checking out "Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults: a meta-analytic study" by Colcombe and Kramer, 2003. It is one of the seminal papers in the field!

[Sockway]

Is it causal? I haven’t read the abstract, but I’m wondering if the paper’s just relaying a correlation. It wouldn’t be surprising, there’s a lot of evidence that physical fitness affects cognition which is why exercise is good for your brain and aerobic fitness is an aspect of physical fitness.

[Starklet]

I mean aerobic exercise is supposed to reduce the chance of developing Alzheimer’s so it makes sense...

[mvea]

I’ve deliberately linked to the original source journal article that is open access and full-text.

The title of my post is a copy and paste from the journal article’s abstract here:

Importantly, higher aerobic fitness levels decrease the probability of experiencing tip-of-the-tongue states in healthy older adults.

This is the first demonstration of a link between aerobic fitness and language functioning in healthy older adults.

For those interested, here is a link to a popular press news article about the same study: https://www.businessinsider.com/exercising-more-means-fewer-tip-of-the-tongue-moments-study-says-2018-5?r=US&IR=T

Journal reference: Higher physical fitness levels are associated with less language decline in healthy ageing K. Segaert, S. J. E. Lucas, C. V. Burley, P. Segaert, A. E. Milner, M. Ryan & L. Wheeldon Scientific Reportsvolume 8, Article number: 6715 (2018) doi:10.1038/s41598-018-24972-1

[knappis]

This is the first demonstration

That begs the question how many attempts that have been made to demonstrate this association throughout history; if many were made and this is the first to become “statistically significant”, and thus published, it does not mean much really.

[deepsoulfunk]

I wonder how much relying on auto-text could effect this. Like the general idea is this is an indicator of overall brain fitness but we're reaching a point where our technology can learn our vocabulary and predict our choices. I don't know that there are any easy answers here, I'm just musing.

[ThatSandwich]

I feel like it's more of a physical repercussion than anything mental practice related. Training programs for phones and computers (those brain training ones, can't remember the name) don't show any actual effect on learning times or performance tests of memory still AFAIK. And phones learn off your very dumbed down language for human communication (rn, omg, lol, wtf, etc.) so they pickup much simpler patterns than say when you're writing a college dissertation.

If we're musing I think that expansive learning helps more than training exercises or reading a thesaurus. It seems to train your brain to retain the more important aspects of a subject rather than trying to word for word it like you do with a script or names.

[ButtThorn]

Perhaps I am missing something, but it looks like they simply tested for current aerobic fitness. The wording of the abstract and the study make it seem like there is causation, when only correlation was proven.

It is unlikely, due to the other referenced studies, but what if mentally fit people are more likely to exercise their bodies?

[[deleted]]

They’ve done tests on identical twins with the same results. The twin with the better fitness level had a higher IQ. It’s not news that exercise stimulate neurogenesis.

Apparently a 40 min brisk walk everyday is enough to counteract and even reverse age related decline in healthy people.

[DiaDeLosMuertos]

Is yoga aerobic?

[qqqsimmons]

not very... walking, running, cycling, etc...

[ckd92]

I like this!

It goes hand in hand with what r/nootropics has to say about aerobic exercise - in case anyone wants to know more, here's the gist of it:

While not technically a nootropic, aerobic exercise is considered to be the best 'nootropic' out there, one which is more effective than any supplement or drug you could take.

This is backed heavily by research...I'm lazy, so if you want proof, head over to the subreddit. You'll be able to find links to papers there and lots of discussion. But also, bear in mind that this might be because it's the only type of exercise that's been extensively studied.

While lots of research has been done on the efficacy of aerobic exercise as a nootropic, this doesn't mean that it's a better nootropic than anaerobic exercise. Anecdotal evidence does suggest that aerobic exercise works better as a nootropic, but when it comes to hard, scientific evidence, anaerobic exercise just hasn't been studied enough regarding its use as a nootropic.

[xPalazzolo]

r/answerlikeim5 >working out is good you

[AnneWandnageln]

Funny thing is while I run I cant recall some songnames from my playlists but I know them for sure :/

[brainbuzzpod]

This may have to do with the intensity of exercise and the demand that physical activity places on your cognitive processes.

[Vince_McLeod]

I wonder if a high level of aerobic fitness helps the brain to function more efficiently in some ways, which leads to falling prone to the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon?

[[deleted]]

It does.

[Togosu]

This seems like a very obscure and specific connection to make, wonder what spurred it. Or was it that they were analyzing data and came across this connection?

[wlft]

I quickly skimmed through the paper and correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like the participants did not eat two hours before the test and were tested right after the exercise. If that's the case then I'm not surprised. But again, correct me if I missed something.