Many senior adults spend a lot of time on performing exercises and mindfulness training as they get older. However, a new large study that focus on their effectiveness on cognitive function has found no such improvement. 

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California, San Diego, studied the cognitive effects of exercise, mindfulness training or both for up to 18 months in older adults who reported age-related changes in memory but had not been diagnosed with any form of dementia.

"We know beyond any doubt that exercise is good for older adults, that it can lower risk for cardiac problems, strengthen bones, improve mood and have other beneficial effects - and there has been some thought that it also might improve cognitive function," said the study's first author, Eric J. Lenze, the Wallace and Lucille Renard Professor and head of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine.