Background and purposes: Square-stepping exercise (SSE) has been proved to be an effective intervention for motor and cognitive function in older adults. However, the underlying mechanism of SSE still remains undetermined. Therefore, the aim of this study is to elucidate the possible mechanism of SSE in healthy older adults. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Inclusion criteria are: (1) age between 65 and 90 years, (2) no frailty indicated by Fried frailty criteria, (3) mini-mental state examination score≧24 and Montreal Cognitive Assessment score≧26, (4) ability to walk independently for 1 min. Brain activation differences between SSE patterns and usual walking, as well as relationships between brain activity, cognitive function, physical performance and SSE performance will be examined. This study will address both cognitive and motor aspects of possible mechanism in SSE. SPSS version 25.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) will be used to analyze the collected data in this study. One-way ANOVA with repeated measures is used to evaluate the differences in brain activation among usual walking, SSE-pattern 1, and SSE-pattern 2, with Bonferroni test for post hoc analysis. The Pearson correlation coefficient will be used to establish the relationships between brain activity and SSEs performance, between cognitive function and SSEs performance, and between motor function and SSEs performance. The significant level is set at p\< .05.
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Brain activity
Timeframe: at the enrollment (1 day)