Abstract
While there is strong evidence from observational studies that physical activity is associated with reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia, the extent to which aerobic training interventions impact on cognitive health and brain structure remains subject to debate. In a pilot study of 46 healthy older adults (66.6 years ± 5.2 years, 63% female), we compared the effects of a twelve-week aerobic training programme to a waitlist control condition on cardiorespiratory fitness, cognition and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) outcomes. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by VO2 max testing. Cognitive assessments spanned executive function, memory and processing speed. Structural MRI analysis included examination of hippocampal volume, and voxel-wise assessment of grey matter volumes using voxel-based morphometry. Diffusion tensor imaging analysis of fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity and radial diffusivity was performed using tract-based spatial statistics. While the intervention successfully increased cardiorespiratory fitness, there was no evidence that the aerobic training programme led to changes in cognitive functioning or measures of brain structure in older adults. Interventions that are longer lasting, multi-factorial, or targeted at specific high-risk populations, may yield more encouraging results.
Highlights
Across animal and human studies, it has been widely proposed that higher levels of physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) can promote successful cognitive aging [1,2], with reviews of observational studies consistently concluding that higher levels of PA are associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia [3,4,5]
Several meta-analyses have reported that aerobic training programmes are associated with improvements across multiple cognitive domains [6,7,8,9], others have concluded that there is no evidence that aerobic training programmes have any benefit in cognitively healthy older adults [10,11]
Ethical approval was obtained from the Local Research Ethics Committee (Oxford REC B Ref 10/H0605/48), informed written consent was obtained from all participants, and all research was performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations
Summary
Across animal and human studies, it has been widely proposed that higher levels of physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) can promote successful cognitive aging [1,2], with reviews of observational studies consistently concluding that higher levels of PA are associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline and dementia [3,4,5]. In analyses that grouped participants assigned to either the aerobic training programme or the control intervention, change in fitness has been positively associated with change in hippocampal volume [17,18,19] and hippocampal volume post-intervention [20]. We report the results from the Cognitive Health in Ageing Exercise Study, a pilot study that examined the effects of an aerobic training intervention on executive function, memory and processing speed, and both global and voxel-wise measures of grey matter volume and white matter microstructure. We hypothesise that, compared with a control group, the aerobic training group will show improvements in cognitive performance, increases in grey matter volumes and improved white matter microstructure, with results localised to frontal or hippocampal regions. We hypothesise that change in fitness over the course of the study will be positively associated with change in cognitive and MRI markers
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