Effect of aerobic exercise on cognition in younger adults

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine efficacy of aerobic exercise for cognitive function in younger healthy adults. MethodsIn a randomized, parallel-group, observer-masked, community-based clinical trial, 132 cognitively normal individuals aged 20-67 with below median aerobic capacity were randomly assigned to one of two 6-month, 4-times-weekly conditions: aerobic exercise and stretching/ toning. Efficacy measures included aerobic capacity; cognitive function in several domains (executive function, episodic memory, processing speed, language, and attention), everyday function, body mass index (BMI), and cortical thickness. ResultsAerobic capacity increased significantly (β = 2.718; p = 0.003), and BMI decreased significantly (β = −0.596; p = 0.013) in the aerobic exercise but not in the stretching/toning condition. Executive function improved significantly in the aerobic exercise condition; this effect was moderated by age (β = 0.018 SD/y; p = 0.028). At age 40, the executive function measure increased by 0.228 SD (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.007-0.448), and by 0.596 SD (95% CI 0.219-0.973) at age 60. Cortical thickness increased significantly in the aerobic exercise group in a left frontal region and did not interact with age. Controlling for age and baseline performance, individuals with at least one APOE e4 allele showed less improvement in executive function with aerobic exercise (β = 0.5129, 95% CI 0.0381-0.988; p = 0.0346). ConclusionsThis randomized clinical trial demonstrates the efficacy of aerobic exercise for cognition in adults age 20-67. The effect of aerobic exercise on executive function was more pronounced as age increased, suggesting that it may mitigate age-related declines. Increased cortical thickness suggests that aerobic exercise contributes to brain health in individuals as young as age 20.Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT01179958. Classification of evidenceThis study provides Class II evidence that for adults age 20-67 with below median aerobic capacity, aerobic exercise significantly improves executive function but not other measures of cognitive function.

The relationship between physical activity, apolipoprotein E ε4 carriage, and brain health

“…Artifact-free data were segmented in 4 s epochs. Then, MEG time series were filtered into delta (2-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8)(9)(10)(11)(12), and beta (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). This procedure has been reported in detail in [22].…”

“…The major genetic risk factor for sporadic AD, namely the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele, is present in 60-80% of AD cases and is linked to a 3.2-fold increased AD risk in heterozygosis and up to 14.9-fold increased AD risk in homozygosis [5]. While most studies claim that PA-protective effects mainly manifest among ε4 carriers [6,7], others identified this same effect exists only in non-carriers [8,9], while other studies report benefits regardless of APOE ε4 allele carriage [10,11]. This inconsistent literature is likely due to the use of varying study designs and outcome measures (i.e., hippocampal volume, shortterm memory, or rate of AD conversion).…”

The Impact of Exercise, Lifestyle, and Clinical Factors on Perceived Cognitive Function in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results from a Prospective Cohort Study

“…The finding that regular physical activity is beneficial for cognitive function and reduces longitudinal decline in cognition and risk of depression has been studied widely in healthy older adults . Aerobic exercise has also recently been shown to be effective in improving cognition and increasing cortical thickness in younger healthy individuals . In systemic lupus erythematosus, physical inactivity and obesity were associated with impairment in cognitive function also adjusting for demographics, disease activity, and depression .…”

Acute Aerobic Exercise Based Cognitive and Motor Priming: Practical Applications and Mechanisms

“…A lack of cardiovascular fitness has been linked with cognitive dysfunction and learning deficits in various clinical populations (Katz et al, 2012;Alosco et al, 2014); for this reason, recent research efforts have explored the benefits of aerobic exercise on brain health and cognitive functioning with positive results reported for both healthy and neurocognitively impaired individuals (Stoykov et al, 2017). For example, aerobic exercise has been shown to improve memory, processing speed and executive functioning among those with mental deficiencies (Altmann et al, 2016;Zhu et al, 2018), along with facilitating learning in healthy adults (Young et al, 2015;Venckunas et al, 2016;Stern et al, 2019) and adolescents (Berse et al, 2015).…”