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Category: Procedure

Description: Depression is characterized by affective symptoms and neuropsychological deficits. After treatment, affective symptoms frequently remit, but cognitive alterations may remain affecting the lives of people and having an impact on health, economy, and societies. The present work describes the methods, procedures, and equipment of a randomized three-arm controlled experiment designed to measure the effects of exergames on executive functions (EFs) under depression. EFs are complex functions that are essential for organizing information, planning an action, reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving. Literature shows that EFs are compromised under depression, affecting daily-life activities and other cognitive domains. To conduct the experiment, middle-aged adults with depression will be randomly distributed into three experimental groups: an intervention group training with exergames, an active control group training only with cognitive video games, and a passive control group or wait list. EFs are evaluated at three different time points: before the cognitive-behavioral intervention, after the intervention, and three months follow-up, using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Researchers will collect cognitive-behavioral and neural information (event-related potentials, ERPs). Results will be explored performing analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the outcomes of the diverse groups at the three different time points, understanding the benefits of exergames in terms of EFs under depression. This study holds promise for the development of novel approaches to implement psychological and neuropsychological health.