Physical and Cognitive Load of an Exergame

Comparison of a physical, cognitive and physical-cognitive training by determining their cognitive and physical loads in healthy adults

Physical activity and exercise bring along considerable health benefits, from what a great part of our population could benefit. An up-and-coming topic in the field of physical activity are so-called exergames. Exergames are a combination of physical exercise and video gaming allowing a concurrent stimulation of cognitive and physical functions in a motivating environment. Nowadays, exergame are used for different purposes and in different areas as fitness, prevention and rehabilitation. To achieve the best training effects in these different areas of applications, it is important to know how to composite the cognitive and physical stimuli of an exergame. However, there is still a lack of understanding, how the physical and cognitive components of an exergame interact with each other to generate the training load on the physical and cognitive level.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare a physical, cognitive and physical-cognitive training by determining their cognitive and physical loads in healthy adults. To get the different stimuli of 1. Physical training, 2. Cognitive training and 3. Physical-cognitive training, we will used the exergame ExerCube for the 3rd condition, solely the video game of the ExerCube for the 2nd condition, and solely the physical exercises of the ExerCube for the 1st condition. During each session, different physical and cognitive measures will be assessed. In addition, the participants will answer different questionnaires and rating scale to determine the subjective physical and cognitive load after each sessions. To sum up, we hope to create a first starting point how physical and cognitive components in an exergame influence the individual training load.

This study is a collaboration of our research group with the company external page Sphery.