ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicReimagining Human Movement: The Impact of Extended Reality on Physical and Emotional ExperienceView all 5 articles
The Selective Cognitive Benefits of Long-term Tai Chi Practice on Executive Function Students: A Study on Young Adults
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Martial Arts, Henan University,, Kaifeng, China
- 2Henan University, Kaifeng, China
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This study investigates the cognitive effects of long-term (years of practice) Tai Chi practice, revealing mixed outcomes for executive functions. Using the BRIEF-A scale and tasks like the Flanker task, More-Odd Shift Task, and N-back tasks, significant differences emerged between Tai Chi students and non-students. In the results, Tai Chi students demonstrated superior inhibitory control and working memory compared to non-Tai Chi students, as illustrated by BRIEF-A results and performance on the 1-back task. These benefits are attributed to Tai Chi's combination of physical movement, cognitive engagement, and mindfulness through rhythmic breathing, which enhances mental clarity, attentional discipline, and distraction management. However, no significant difference in cognitive flexibility was found, possibly due to automatic reflexes from repetitive routines. This lack of cognitive flexibility improvement may stem from practitioners' instinctive responses to familiar movements, restricting adaptive strategy shifts. This study equally addresses the gap in research regarding the long-term effects of Tai Chi, emphasizing its influence on the executive functions of young adults. The results obtain illustrates that long-term Tai Chi practice selectively enhances specific cognitive domains, notably inhibition and working memory, while leaving cognitive flexibility unchanged. This result challenges the assumption that Tai Chi uniformly enhance the cognitive function, highlighting the need for further research into its long-term effects on specific cognitive domains. By elucidating these selective enhancements, future studies can explore the mechanisms underlying these outcomes and their implications for cognitive health. Such research could inform interventions aimed at optimizing Tai Chi practices to maximize cognitive benefits across diverse populations.
Keywords: Tai Chi, cognitive flexibility, executive functions, inhibition, working memory, mindfulness
Received: 10 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sime Nkemeni, Zhang, CHEN, Chanthavone, Xu and Hong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Tiegang Zhang
LONG CHEN
Fangfang Xu
Hao Hong
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