Fit to speak - Physical fitness is associated with reduced language decline in healthy ageing
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Healthy ageing is associated with decline in cognitive abilities such as language. Aerobic fitness has been shown to ameliorate decline in some cognitive domains, but the potential benefits for language have not been examined. We investigated the relationship between aerobic fitness and tip-of-the-tongue states.These are among the most frequent cognitive failures in healthy older adults and occur when a speaker knows a word but is unable to produce it. We found that healthy older adults indeed experience more tip-of-the-tongue states, and that when they do they have access to less information about the word's sound structure, compared to young controls. Importantly, higher aerobic fitness levels decrease the probability of experiencing tip-of-the-tongue states in healthy older adults, over and above the effect of age. This is the first demonstration of a link between aerobic fitness and language functioning in healthy older adults.
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