The effects of gardening activities on prefrontal area measured with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)

The objective of this study was to seek effective and age-appropriate gardening activities for activation of the prefrontal area. Participants were divided into two groups of 54 younger adults (age range 20-59) and 23 older adults (age range 60-88). We measured and compared relative values of oxyhemoglobin concentration in the prefrontal area in both groups during five typical gardening tasks and a control task by using near-infrared spectroscopy. We selected five tasks of seeding, thinning, planting, weeding and watering as typical gardening tasks and a motor programming task of the Frontal Assessment Battery as a control task. In younger adults, activation during all of the gardening tasks was similar to, or greater than that of the control task. In older adults, greater activation was observed during the seeding task and the watering task compared to the control task. These results suggest that gardening activities including shifting attention, fine motor skill, and attentional allocation such as seeding and watering have potential to be effective for prevention or delay of cognitive decline from the view point of non-pharmacological approaches.