Abstract—A meta-analytic study was conducted to examine the hypothesis
that aerobic fitness training enhances the cognitive vitality of healthy
but sedentary older adults. Eighteen intervention studies published between
1966 and 2001 were entered into the analysis. Several theoretically
and practically important results were obtained. Most important, fitness
training was found to have robust but selective benefits for cognition, with
the largest fitness-induced benefits occurring for executive-control processes.
The magnitude of fitness effects on cognition was also moderated
by a number of programmatic and methodological factors, including the
length of the fitness-training intervention, the type of the intervention, the
duration of training sessions, and the gender of the study participants.
The results are discussed in terms of recent neuroscientific and psychological
data that indicate cognitive and neural plasticity is maintained
throughout the life span.