Wellness Darts as a Cognitive Exercise - Comprehensive Approaches for an Improvement of Cognitive Functions

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K01652
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Developmental mechanisms and the body works
• Research Institution: Doshisha University
• Principal Investigator: TAKEDA Masaki 同志社大学, スポーツ健康科学部, 教授 (00278459)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 廣安 知之 同志社大学, 生命医科学部, 教授 (20298144)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 認知機能 / ダーツ / 高齢者

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Darts training were prescribed for 6 months (1 team / week + self-training at home) for 31 healthy elderly people (9 men, 22 women, 73.6 ± 3.4 years old). Four evaluation items for cognitive function were provided: subtraction test, working memory test, PEG test, and WCST (cognitive flexibility test). As a result of two-factor analysis of variance, no interaction was found in the subtraction test, PEG test, and WCST, but a significant interaction was found in the working memory test.
We have tried to measure the cerebral blood flow in darts, but we found that the influence of motion artifacts was great, and we examined 5 methods of removing motion artifacts. It turned out that tPCA is highly effective in filtering.

Free Research Field

スポーツ生理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ダーツの縦断的効果として，認知機能の改善を示した報告は見当たらない．本研究は，ダーツでトレーニングすることが，認知機能低下予防に効果を示すという発見（学術的意義）があり，世界の高齢化社会における認知機能低下の防止策としての社会的意義があるものと考えられる．一方，その背景にあるダーツ中の脳の賦活状態を検証することは学術的な意味が大きいと言えるが，残念ながら，測定手法に難しさ（モーションアーチファクトの除去の難しさ）があり，結果を得るには至っていない．この点は方法を変えて更に検討しているところである．