Abstract
Survey data indicate that physical activity is associated with higher cognitive processing in older individuals, but this has not been assessed using accelerometry. PURPOSE: To determine if physical activity assessed with accelerometry is associated with cognitive processing in older men and women. METHODS: Twenty two subjects performed a battery of neurocognitive tests that included: simple reaction time, code substitution, code substitution delayed, logical reasoning, mathematical processing, running memory, and Sternberg memory recall. The outcome variables for the specific tests, with the exception of simple reaction time, were response speed (RES), number of correct responses (COR), and throughput (THR) (correct responses/minute). Subjects wore an accelerometer (ActiGraph) for 7 days to measure moderate and vigorous lifestyle and walking/running physical activity. Accelerometer data were processed using the Crouter 2 Regression model. RESULTS: Subjects were (mean ± SD) 72 ± 6 years and had a Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) score of 28 ± 2. Minutes of vigorous intensity lifestyle (2 ± 3 min/day), moderate intensity (4 ± 6 min/day), and vigorous intensity (0 min/day) walking/running physical activity were excluded from the analysis due to low volume. We found no relationship between moderate lifestyle physical activity and simple reaction time (RES: r = -0.30, p = 0.17; THR: r = 0.33, p = 0.13), code substitution (RES: r = 0.02, p = 0.94 COR: r = 0.06, p = 0.80; THR: r = 0.10; p = 0.66), code substitution delayed (RES: r = -0.03, p = 0.90; COR: r = -0.25, p = 0.27; THR: r = -0.09, p = 0.69), logical reasoning (RES: r = -0.07, p = 0.77; COR: r = -0.38, p = 0.08; THR: r = -0.01, p = 0.95), mathematical processing (RES: r = -0.08, p = 0.74; COR: r = -0.29, p = 0.21; THR: r = -0.19, p = 0.40), running memory (RES: r = -0.32, p = 0.15, COR: r = -0.24, p = 0.30; THR: r = 0.01, p = 0.98), and Sternberg memory recall (RES: r = 0.03, p = 0.88; COR: r = -0.25, p = 0.26; THR: r = -0.02, p = 0.92). CONCLUSION: We found no relationship between moderate physical activity and cognitive processing. Potentially, our findings resulted from the high levels of cognitive function and/or low levels of vigorous physical activity in this sample. Supported by NIH-NCCAM R15-AT003938-01
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