The effectiveness of training prefrontal lobe function for suppressing cognitive decline or improving cognitive function has been reported. Some epidemiological studies suggested that gardening activities can contribute to suppression of cognitive decline. In our previous studies using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), we reported the possibility of frontal pole (FP) activation of healthy older adults during gardening activities in the quasi-laboratory setting. The objective of this study was to examine the impacts of a three-month continual practice of the watering task in the actual gardening settings on the FP activation of healthy older adults. The participants were 18 right-handed healthy older adults without a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or dementia (M = 71.7 years ± SD 5.0, range: 63 - 84 years) who lived independently at home. We asked the participants to continue watering at home for three months in the same way as the research task in the fNIRS measurement. After a three-month intervention, the participants’ task performance improved compared with that of pre-intervention. In addition, the Oxy-Hb values in the right lateral FP during the third trial in the post-intervention measurement were significantly greater compared with the pre-intervention measurement. This study suggested that even a gardening activity with a small number of processes such as watering, if the activity is continued for a certain period of time, can suppress the decline of the FP activation of healthy older adults. Combination of various gardening activities has the potential to be a further cognitive training for activating the FP.
World Health Organization (2019) Dementia Fact Sheets. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia
Cherry, K.E., Park, D.C., Frieske, D.A. and Smith, A.D. (1996) Verbal and Picotorial Elaborations Enhance Memory in Young and Older Adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 3, 15-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825589608256609
Kwee, I.L. and Nakada, T. (2003) Dorsolateral Prefrontal Lobe Activation Declines Significantly with Age—Functional NIRS Study. Journal of Neurology, 250, 525-529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-003-1028-x
Belleville, S., Clément, F., Mellah, S., Gilbert, B., Fontaine, F. and Gauthier, S. (2011) Training-Related Brain Plasticity in Participants at Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease. Brain, 134, 1623-1634. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awr037
Fabrigoule, C., Letenneur, L., Dartigues, J.F., Zarrouk M., Commenges, D. and Barberger-Gateau, P. (1995) Social and Leisure Activities and Risk of Dementia: A Prospective Longitudinal Study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 43, 485-490. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1995.tb06093.x
Simons, L.A., Simons, J., McCallum, J. and Friedlander, Y. (2006) Lifestyle Factors and Risk of Dementia: Dubbo Study of the Elderly. Medical Journal of Australia, 184, 68-70. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00120.x
Jedrziewski, M.K., Ewbank, D.C., Wang, H. and Trojanowski, J.Q. (2010) Exercise and Cognition: Results from the National Long Term Care Survey. Alzheimer’s Dementia, 6, 448-455. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2010.02.004
Soga, M., Gaston, K.J. and Yamaura, Y. (2017) Gardening Is Beneficial for Health: A Meta-Analysis. Preventive Medicine Reports, 5, 92-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.11.007
Toyoda, M., Yokota, Y. and Rodiek, S. (2016) A Motor Programming Task Activates the Prefrontal Cortex More than a Sensitivity-to-Interference Task or an Inhibitory Control Task in Older Adults. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 6, 433-447. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2016.611040
Toyoda, M. and Yokota, Y. (2016) The Effects of Gardening Activities on Prefrontal Area Measured with Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). Acta Horticulturae, 1121, 33-38. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1121.6
Toyoda, M., Yokota, Y. and Rodiek, S. (2017) Gardening May Repeatedly Activate the Frontal Pole. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, 7, 464-483. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2017.710033
Pivik, R.T., Broughton, R.J., Coppola, R., Davidson, R.J., Fox, N. and Nuwer, M.R. (1993) Guidelines for Recording and Quantitative Analysis of Electroencephalo-Graphic Activity in Research Contexts. Psychophysiology, 30, 547-558. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1993.tb02081.x/full https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1993.tb02081.x
Hoshi, Y., Kobayashi, N. and Tamura, M. (2001) Interpretation of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Signals: A Study with a Newly Developed Perfused Rat Brain Model. Journal of Applied Physiology, 90, 1657-1662. http://jap.physiology.org/content/90/5/1657.short https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.2001.90.5.1657
Sakatani, K., Xie, Y., Lichty, W., Li, S. and Zuo, H. (1998) Language-Activated Cerebral Blood Oxygenation and Hemodynamic Changes of the Left Prefrontal Cortex in Poststroke Aphasic Patients a Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study. Stroke, 29, 1299-1304. http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/29/7/1299.short https://doi.org/10.1161/01.STR.29.7.1299
Burgess, P.W., Gilbert, S.J. and Dumontheil, I. (2007) Function and Localization within Rostral Prefrontal Cortex (Area 10). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 362, 887-899. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2095
Gilbert, S.J., Frith, C.D. and Burgess, P.W. (2005) Involvement of Rostral Prefrontal Cortex in Selection between Stimulus-Oriented and Stimulus-Independent Thought. European Journal of Neuroscience, 21, 1423-1431. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2005.03981.x
Spectratech Inc. Press Release (2017) “Hemodynamics Modality Separation (HMS) Method” Developed by AIST Was Adopted for all OEG fNIRS for Research. https://www.spectratech.co.jp/En/download/Press%20re lease%2020171110.pdf#search=%27Spectratech+Press+Release%27
Yamada T., Umeyama, S. and Matsuda, K. (2012) Separation of fNIRS Signals into Functional and Systemic Components Based on Differences in Hemodynamic Modalities. PLoS ONE, 7, e50271. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050271
Burgess, P.W., Simons, J.S., Dumontheil, I. and Gilbert, S.J. (2007) The Gateway Hypothesis of Rostral Prefrontal Cortex (Area 10) Function. In: Duncan J., Phil lips, L. and McLeod, P., Eds. Measuring the Mind: Speed, Control, and Age, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 217-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.05.004
Burgess, P.W., Gilbert, S.J. and Dumontheil, I. (2007) Function and Localization within Rostral Prefrontal Cortex (Area 10). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362, 887-899. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2007.2095 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2095
Pollmann, S. (2004) Anterior Prefrontal Cortex Contributions to Attention Control. Experimental Psychology, 51, 270-278. https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169.51.4.270
Cabeza, R. and Dennis, N.A. (2012) Frontal Lobes and Aging. Principles of Frontal Lobe Function. 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, New York, 628-652. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199837755.003.0044
Reijnders, J., van Heugten, C. and Boxtel, M. (2013) Cognitive Interventions in Healthy Older Adults and People with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review. Ageing Research Reviews, 12, 263-275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2012.07.003
Mozolic, J.L., Long, A.B., Morgan, A.R., Rawley-Payne, M. and Laurienti, P.J. (2011) A Cognitive Training Intervention Improves Modality-Specific Attention in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Healthy Older Adults. Neurobiology of Aging, 32, 655-668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.04.013
Martin M., Clare L., Altgassen A.M., Cameron M.H. and Zehnder F. (2011) Cognition-Based Interventions for Healthy Older People and People with Mild Cognitive Impairment (Review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 1, CD006220. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006220.pub2
Gates, N. and Valenzuela, M. (2010) Cognitive Exercise and Its Role in Cognitive Function in Older Adults. Current Psychiatry Reports, 12, 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-009-0085-y
Farzana, F., Ahuja, Y.R. and Sreekanth, V. (2013) Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Enhancing Brain Plasticity and Promoting Brain Recovery: A Review. Research in Neuroscience, 2, 39-49. http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.neuroscience.20130203.02.html
Jenkins, I.H., Brooks, D.J., Nixon, P.D., Frackowiak, R.S. and Passingham, R.E. (1994) Motor Sequence Learning: A Study with Positron Emission Tomography. Journal of Neuroscience, 14, 3775-3790. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.14-06-03775.1994
Takizawa, R., Kasai, K., Kawakubo, Y., Marumo, K., Kawasaki, S., Yamasue, H. and Fukuda, M. (2008) Reduced Frontopolar Activation during Verbal Fluency Task in Schizophrenia: A Multi-Channel Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study. Schizophrenia Research, 99, 250-262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2007.10.025