NCT07443189

Fitness, Ageing, and Bilingualism (FAB): The Benefits of Regular Exercise and Bilingualism for Language Abilities in Healthy Ageing.

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 233 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Agder · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 60 Years – 85 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This project investigates the relative benefits of regular physical activity and bilingualism for ameliorating cognitive decline in healthy ageing, with a particular focus on language function. The randomized intervention component tests whether improving fitness via a home-based HIIT program leads to changes in fitness and related cognitive/language outcomes in older adults.

Detailed description

This project will determine the relative benefits of regular physical activity and bilingualism for the amelioration of cognitive decline in old age. Our project focuses on language because it is a core aspect of human cognition, which has received surprisingly little attention in ageing research given its tremendous impact on well-being. Our own previous research has demonstrated that healthy older adults experience a decline in language function, which is characterized by word finding difficulties, slower and more disfluent sentence production, and slower and less accurate sentence comprehension. Such language problems impact older adults' functioning and can lead to social withdrawal and loneliness. The current project, therefore, investigates how to ameliorate such language problems, as well as other forms of cognitive decline in healthy ageing. Two ameliorating factors that have received a lot of attention are bilingualism and regular physical activity, which have been shown to reduce the structural and functional brain decline associated with healthy ageing and to confer cognitive reserve, i.e. resilient cognitive performance. Currently, however, it has only been established that bilingualism and regular physical activity provide benefits for non-linguistic aspects of cognition, such as executive functioning, working memory, and processing speed. What is currently lacking is knowledge about the effects of exercise on language abilities in healthy ageing. Many language processes are isolated from, and independent of, other cognitive faculties. For example, word finding difficulties are not failures of long-term memory, as word knowledge increases with age, but the ability to successfully access words decreases. We have already demonstrated that fitter older adults experience fewer word finding difficulties than unfit older adults. In the current project, we aim to establish for the first time a causal relationship between physical exercise and ameliorated language decline in healthy ageing. To this end, we will conduct an aerobic exercise intervention and quantify increases in fitness levels and physical changes due to the intervention. We will examine the effects of these changes on language function in mono- and bilingual older adults. Moreover, using neuroimaging, we will investigate the neural changes underlying the benefits of exercise for language. Our study will thus provide new knowledge about how best to maintain language abilities across the lifespan. Furthermore, ameliorating language decline might be even more crucial for bilinguals than monolinguals, as bilingualism, even in young adults, has measurable costs for linguistic processing. Bilinguals have slower and less fluent word retrieval in both languages and more frequent word finding failures than monolinguals. Previous research provides competing accounts of these deficits, attributing them to either competition between languages during production or to the reduced frequency of use of a given language compared to monolinguals. Critically, these mechanisms may be differently affected by ageing. This is because with age, executive control declines, but language use accrues. Our research will therefore test these alternative theories about language decline in ageing bilinguals. We will also collect detailed information on the individual characteristics of bilinguals, which will allow us to identify those variables of bilingualism that serve to protect against decline in ageing. The study will be run across two institutions: the Universities of Agder (Norway) and Birmingham (UK).

Conditions

• Healthy Ageing
• Cognitive Decline
• Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Home-Based HIIT	Participants will complete a 26-week home-based HIIT program comprising simple circuit training once per week and interval training twice per week. A 26-week dose will be targeted; if interruptions occur (e.g., illness, travel), the intervention period will be extended to ensure completion of 26 weeks of exercise sessions. The first four weeks will constitute a familiarization period with sub-maximal sessions, training equipment familiarization (Polar Unite watch and Polar H9 chest sensor), and instructional videos. Subsequent sessions will target high intensity (≥80% of HRpeak). Training will be guided by a personal exercise coach via emails, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings once weekly during the familiarization period and monthly thereafter. Participants will use a Polar Unite watch and Polar H9 chest sensor; the watch will be pre-programmed to display %HRpeak in real time during sessions. Exercise data will be extracted using Polar Flow software.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-09-01
• Primary completion: 2023-11-30
• Completion: 2023-11-30
• First posted: 2026-03-02
• Last updated: 2026-03-02

Locations

2 sites across 2 countries: Norway, United Kingdom