Book review: Exercise and its Mediating Effects on Cognition. Aging, Exercise and Cognition Series
✍ Scribed by Benjamin A. Sibley
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 96 KB
- Volume
- 20
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1042-0533
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This book represents the second of the three-volume Aging, Exercise, and Cognition Series published by Human Kinetics. The first book in the series provided an overview of exercise and cognition in older adults, including measurement issues and relevant physiological variables (Poon et al., 2006). In this second volume, the focus is on mediating, or indirectly contributing, variables in the exercise-cognition relationship. The book is divided into four sections. Part 1 explains the model for the role of mediators in the exercise-cognition relationship used in the book, as well as a technical chapter on mediators, moderators, and their statistical analysis. Part 2 addresses the effects of exercise on mental resources, such as depression, stress, self-efficacy, and cognitive energetics. Part 3 examines the effect of exercise on physical resources that impact cognition, such as sleep and diet. Lastly, part 4 looks at the chronic disease states of hypertension, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and how these states might play mediating roles in the relationship between exercise and cognition. The discussion is always framed around how these relationships affect aging individuals, although much of the information is relevant across the age spectrum This book is a bit, if a hybrid volume in that it is both an edited compilation of chapters from various authors and also includes conference proceedings. Experts from the fields of exercise, cognition, neurobiology, and aging were asked to submit draft manuscripts on their various fields in relation to exercise, cognition, and aging to the editors. Each author was then sent copies of the various manuscripts along with a working model showing the role of mediators in the exercise-cognition relationship and was asked to relate their work to the model. Finally, a workshop was held in which the editors and chapter authors came together and presented their updated manuscripts. The process through which the volume was developed does add some coherence to the book. The working model described in the book is not only based on the various authors' expertise, but also provided a framework for how each chapter should fit into the larger work.
To further aid in providing coherence in the volume, the editors provide commentary at the beginning and end of each chapter. The opening commentary provides an overview of the chapter, as well as an attempt to explain how the information provided fits into the proposed exercisecognition mediational model. I say ''attempt'' because some of the chapters seem only peripherally related to the proposed model despite the process described in the previous paragraph. For example, Chapter 8, addresses diet, motor behavior, and cognition, provides an overview of how oxidative stress and inflammation can affect cognition, and how diet, in particular, blueberry consumption, plays a role in this relationship. No attempt is made to