Effect of Aerobic Exercises on Cognitive Function of Elderly

Abstract

Aging process leads to progressive loss of numerous physiological functions, including the cognitive functions (CF). Aerobic training (AE) provides many beneficial adaptations to the health of elderly. More recently AE have shown improvements on CF. Furthermore, the improvements in CF can be seen also after an only session of AE. However, among many AE protocols, it is not clear, which of them could lead to higher CF improvements after only one session. We compared the effects of high load AE, low load AE and low-load AE with blood flow restriction. All of them were performed for 20 min in a treadmill by healthy elderly in a cross-over design. CF was assessed by Stroop Test before and after each AE protocol. None of the AE protocols tested in the present study improved the elderly cognitive function. These results could be due to the extremely healthy sample or the large heterogeneity of response among them.