@article{HeinzelLawrenceKalliesetal.2015, author = {Heinzel, Stephan and Lawrence, Jimmy B. and Kallies, Gunnar and Rapp, Michael Armin and Heissel, Andreas}, title = {Using Exercise to Fight Depression in Older Adults}, series = {GeroPsych : the journal of gerontopsychology and geriatric psychiatry}, volume = {28}, journal = {GeroPsych : the journal of gerontopsychology and geriatric psychiatry}, publisher = {Hogrefe}, address = {Cambridge, Mass. ; G{\"o}ttingen [u.a.]}, issn = {1662-9647}, doi = {10.1024/1662-9647/a000133}, pages = {149 -- 162}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disorder in the general population. Despite a large demand for efficient treatment options, the majority of older depressed adults does not receive adequate treatment: Additional low-threshold treatments are needed for this age group. Over the past two decades, a growing number of randomized controlled trials (RCT) have been conducted, testing the efficacy of physical exercise in the alleviation of depression in older adults. This meta-analysis systematically reviews and evaluates these studies; some subanalyses testing specific effects of different types of exercise and settings are also performed. In order to be included, exercise programs of the RCTs had to fulfill the criteria of exercise according to the American College of Sports Medicine, including a sample mean age of 60 or above and an increased level of depressive symptoms. Eighteen trials with 1,063 participants fulfilled our inclusion criteria. A comparison of the posttreatment depression scores between the exercise and control groups revealed a moderate effect size in favor of the exercise groups (standardized mean difference (SMD) of -0.68, p < .001). The effect was comparable to the results achieved when only the eleven trials with low risk of bias were included (SMD = -0.63, p < .001). The subanalyses showed significant effects for all types of exercise and for supervised interventions. The results of this meta-analysis suggest that physical exercise may serve as a feasible, additional intervention to fight depression in older adults. However, because of small sample sizes of the majority of individual trials and high statistical heterogeneity, results must be interpreted carefully.}, language = {en} } @misc{KuschpelLiuSchadetal.2015, author = {Kuschpel, Maxim S. and Liu, Shuyan and Schad, Daniel and Heinzel, Stephan and Heinz, Andreas and Rapp, Michael Armin}, title = {Differential effects of wakeful rest, music and video game playing on working memory performance in the n-back task}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-85151}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. We investigated the effects of active computer gaming and passive relaxation (rest and music) breaks on working memory performance. Young adults were exposed to breaks involving (i) eyes-open resting, (ii) listening to music and (iii) playing the video game "Angry Birds" before performing the n-back working memory task. Based on linear mixed-effects modeling, we found that playing the "Angry Birds" video game during a short learning break led to a decline in task performance over the course of the task as compared to eyes-open resting and listening to music, although overall task performance was not impaired. This effect was associated with high levels of daily mind wandering and low self-reported ability to concentrate. These findings indicate that video games can negatively affect working memory performance over time when played in between learning tasks. We suggest further investigation of these effects because of their relevance to everyday activity.}, language = {en} } @article{KuschpelLiuSchadetal.2015, author = {Kuschpel, Maxim S. and Liu, Shuyan and Schad, Daniel and Heinzel, Stephan and Heinz, Andreas and Rapp, Michael Armin}, title = {Differential effects of wakeful rest, music and video game playing on working memory performance in the n-back task}, series = {Frontiers in psychology}, journal = {Frontiers in psychology}, number = {6}, publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01683}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. We investigated the effects of active computer gaming and passive relaxation (rest and music) breaks on working memory performance. Young adults were exposed to breaks involving (i) eyes-open resting, (ii) listening to music and (iii) playing the video game "Angry Birds" before performing the n-back working memory task. Based on linear mixed-effects modeling, we found that playing the "Angry Birds" video game during a short learning break led to a decline in task performance over the course of the task as compared to eyes-open resting and listening to music, although overall task performance was not impaired. This effect was associated with high levels of daily mind wandering and low self-reported ability to concentrate. These findings indicate that video games can negatively affect working memory performance over time when played in between learning tasks. We suggest further investigation of these effects because of their relevance to everyday activity.}, language = {en} }