Remember, you can dance!

Naturally as we age, we are expected to have physical and cognitive decline. Since all of us are future health care workers, we have heard the golden staple about exercise being important for our physical health such as slowing down the process of cognitive decline. Dancing is an interesting category of exercise as it requires more dimensions such as rhythmic activity and additional cognitive dimensions (i.e. dancing on rhythm and learning the choreography).

A study chose to analyze a two groups of 60+ year old adults; the intervention group had received one hour of ballroom dancing twice a week for 8 months while the control group participated in a walking program. At the end of the program, participants were then to perform multiple tests which tested their executive function, working memory, and spatial memory. At the end of the study, it was found that there was not significant difference between the group that participated in ballroom dancing vs. the walking program (Merom et al., 2016). However, the ballroom group did have improved spatial memory (Merom et al., 2016).

The study was able to show that even as we get older, we can still improve our memory based on the skills that we are learning, but it does not help with executive functions. This is in contrast with another study that analyzed two groups based on their past dance experience. Participants in the study were either categorized into non-professional salsa dancers or non-dancers, all with an age range of 49 - 70. The two groups went through a series of cognitive tests that tested for executive functioning and spatial memory. Results showed that the dancers had outperformed the non-dancers in executive-function related tasks, however, there was no difference in spatial memory performance (Nouera et al., 2020). The first study showed that older adults have the capability to learn dance and improve their spatial memory, while the second study shows that participants that had prior dance experience had reaped the benefits of better executive function compared to their non-dancer counterparts.

Dancing potentially serves as a subtype of exercise that can help with slowing down cognitive decline as it requires other dimensional elements that regular exercise may not include. Maybe the next time you feel down or happy, dance! The you in the future may thank you for it.

References:

Noguera, C., Carmona, D., Rueda, A., Fernández, R., & Cimadevilla, J. M. (2020). Shall We Dance? Dancing Modulates Executive Functions and Spatial Memory. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 1960.

Merom, D., Grunseit, A., Eramudugolla, R., Jefferis, B., Mcneill, J., & Anstey, K. J. (2016). Cognitive Benefits of Social Dancing and Walking in Old Age: The Dancing Mind Randomized Controlled Trial. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 8.