Multidirectional Yoga for Cognition

University of Miami40 enrolled

Overview

Older individuals, 60-90, will be provided regular or cognitively based yoga training. They will then be evaluated using standard cognitive testing devices.

Reductions in executive function are common with age. Along with these declines come reductions in simple functional patterns of daily living such as crossing a street, walking in a crowded area, or performing any functions that occurs in an open (changing) environment. This study will use a newly developed yoga program incorporating multi-directional movements, cognitive challenges and visuomotor disturbances to improve executive function and associated movements in persons over 60 years of age.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Standard Yoga Multi-directional Yoga Educational Control

Interventions

Standard YogaOTHER

Yoga using standard poses and linear movements

Multi-directional YogaOTHER

The multidirectional yoga training program will use both simple and complex movement sequences (asana or postures) that include a cognitive component. For example, participants will be taught a movement sequence that includes 16-20 yoga postures that increase in difficulty as the training progresses.

Educational ControlOTHER

Lectures on health and fitness

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 60 YearsMax age: 90 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * 60-90 years of age * Capable of walking 50 feet with or without a walking aid- Exclusion Criteria: * Regularly participating in yoga or other balance training program * Currently participating in another exercise study * Unable to commit to study duration * Uncontrolled neuromuscular or cardiovascular disease that prevents participation in an exercise study * Advised not to exercise by their physician

Locations (2)

Max Orovitz Laboratories

Coral Gables, Florida, United States

Laboratory of Neruomuscular Research and Active Aging

Coral Gables, Florida, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

NIH Toolbox: Picture Sequence Memory Test

Measures episodic memory. Participants are asked to reproduce a sequence of pictures that is shown on the screen.

Time frame: 5 minutes

NIH Toolbox Flanker test

Measures attention and inhibitory control. Participant focuses on a given stimulus while inhibiting attention to stimuli flanking it.

Time frame: 5 minutes

NIH Toolbox List Sorting test

Measures working memory. Participant recalls and sequences different visually and orally presented stimuli.

Time frame: 5 minutes

NIH Toolbox Pattern Comparison Processing Speed test

Measures speed of processing. Participants discern whether two side-by-side pictures are the same or not, with 85 seconds to respond to as many items as possible. Items are simple so as to purely measure processing speed.

Time frame: 5 minutes

Walking Executive Function Tests

Walking and responding to visual cues presented on a 60 inch monitor.

Time frame: 10 minutes

Timed up-and-go

Rising from a chair, circumventing a cone and returning to the chair.

Time frame: 5 minutes

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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