Hsieh SS, et al. – This study assessed the behavioral and neurophysiological measures of spatial working memory in children who undertook 8 weeks of gymnastics training. Researchers reported a general facilitative impact of a short period of gymnastics training on spatial working memory at both a behavioral and neurophysiological level in children.

Methods

• Researchers recruited 44 children aged 7 to 10 yrs.
• They recruited the experimental group (n = 24; age: 8.7 +/- 1.1 yrs) from Yilan County in Taiwan, while the control group (n = 20; age: 8.6 +/- 1.1 yrs) from Taipei City.
• The experimental group undertook 8 weeks of after-school gymnastics training (2 sessions/week, 90 minutes/session), while the control group received no intervention, and were instructed to maintain their routine daily activities.
• They evaluated working memory by performance on a modified delayed match-to-sample test, and by event-related potential including the P3 component.
• In addition, data was collected pre and post treatment for the experimental group, and at the same time interval for the control group.

Results

• Findings demonstrated improved response accuracy following the experimental intervention regardless of working memory demands.
• Researchers observed that the P3 amplitude was larger at the parietal site after gymnastics training regardless of the task difficulty.