Improved Mental Health in Elders with Long-Term Tai Chi Practice

Improved Mental Health in  Elders with Long-term Tai chi Practice

This well done, rigorous study offers a look into the impact of long term tai chi practice on the brain in elders. Decreased regret and judgment (rumination) were two interesting findings that could help elders avoid depression caused by rumination.

Abstract

Reduced feelings of regret and enhanced fronto-striatal connectivity in elders with long-term Tai Chi experience

Zhiyuan Liu, Lin Li, Sijia Liu, Yubin Sun, Shuang Li, Meng Yi, Li Zheng, Xiuyan Guo

Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2020 Oct 8;15(8):861-873.doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa111.

Affiliations expand

• PMID: 33007783
• PMCID: PMC7543941
• DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa111

Free PMC article - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33007783/

The current study investigates how long-term Tai Chi experience affects the neural and emotional response to regret in elders. Participants perform the sequential risk-taking task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. In the task, participants opened a series of boxes consecutively and decided when to stop. Each box contained a reward, except for one which contained a devil. If the devil was revealed, then this served to zero the participant's gain in that trial. Once stopped, participant's gains and missed chances were revealed. Behaviorally, the Tai Chi group showed less regret, reduced risk taking, higher levels of nonjudgment of inner experience and less emotional sensitivity to outcome. fMRI results showed that the Tai Chi group demonstrated stronger fronto-striatal functional connectivity in trials with numerous missed chances. The nonjudgment of inner experience mediated the impact of fronto-striatal functional connectivity on Tai Chi practitioners' emotional sensitivity to outcome. These results highlight that long-term Tai Chi exercise may be effective in alleviating feelings of regret in elders by promoting reduced judgment of inner experience and enhanced emotion regulation through the strengthening of fronto-striatal functional connectivity.

Keywords: Tai Chi; functional connectivity; meditation; regret; striatum.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press.

Figures

Fig. 1. 5 Two possible conditions are displayed…

Fig. 2. 5 (A) The negative correlation between…

Fig. 3. 5 (A) Common brain regions between…

Fig. 4. 5 In Tai Chi group, VS…

Fig. 5. 5 The mediation analysis showed that…

Fig. 6. 5 (A) Common brain regions between…

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