New US research has found that aerobic exercise could improve cognition in adults of all ages, even those as young as 20.
Carried out by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the new small-scale study looked at 132 adults between the ages of 20 and 67 and assigned them to either an aerobic exercise training program or to a programme of stretching and core-strengthening exercises.
All participants were cognitively normal, but had a below median aerobic capacity. They worked out four times a week, with those in the exercise group able to choose any form of aerobic exercise as long as they reached target heart rates, measured by heart rate monitors.
The findings, published in the journal Neurology, showed that after 24 weeks, those assigned to the aerobic exercise group showed significant improvement in executive function.
The improvements were also seen in participants of all ages, and the greater the participant’s age, the greater the improvement in executive function.
Scans also revealed that those in the exercise group showed increased cortical thickness, also suggesting that aerobic exercise contributes to brain health.
Executive function is the mental process which helps us achieve goals and is needed for many everyday activities, helping us to plan, organise, reason, problem solve, and shift from one related task to another.
“Executive function usually peaks around age 30,” explains co-author Yaakov Stern, PhD, “and I think that aerobic exercise is good at rescuing lost function, as opposed to increasing performance in those without a decline.”
The researchers note that most previous studies looking at a link between exercise and cognition have focused on seniors. With the team now finding that aerobic exercise training may improve cognition in younger adults, they add that exercise may help to prevent or slow at least some cognitive changes that occur as we age.
However, aerobic exercise did not appear to improve cognitive function in processing speed, language, attention, or episodic memory for participants of any age. Co-author Richard Sloan, PhD, commented that previous research has found that aerobic exercise improves these features in adults above 55 and that a larger study may be able to also find improvement in younger adults.
He added that it is also possible that exercise has different effects in younger and older adults. – Relaxnews
