The Relationship Between Physical Activity and Facial Affect Recognition in Older Adults Versus Younger Adults

The ability to recognize emotional facial expressions is integral to social interactions. Older adults experience declines in facial affect recognition (FAR), which can negatively impact their psychosocial functioning and health. As prior research indicates regular physical activity can reduce age-related cognitive declines, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between physical activity and FAR performance in younger and older adults. Physical activity was assessed via self-report. A computerized FAR task was used to measure accuracy and response time. Results showed no age difference in FAR accuracy, but older adults had significantly slower FAR response times for correct responses. In addition, age group moderated the relationship between physical activity and FAR, whereby a greater amount of weekly physical activity was associated with faster FAR response times only for older adults. This suggests that physical activity may mitigate age-related declines in the ability to quickly and accurately recognize emotional facial expressions.