Physical activity and enhanced fitness to improve cognitive function in older people without known cognitive impairment.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity is beneficial for healthy ageing. It may also help maintain good cognitive function in older age. Aerobic activity improves cardiovascular fitness, but it is not known whether this sort of fitness is necessary for improved cognitive function. Studies in which activity, fitness and cognition are reported in the same individuals could help to resolve this question. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of physical activity, aimed at improving cardiorespiratory fitness, on cognitive function in older people without known cognitive impairment. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PEDro, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CENTRAL), Dissertation abstracts international and ongoing trials registers on 15 December 2005 with no language restrictions. SELECTION CRITERIA: All published randomised controlled trials comparing aerobic physical activity programmes with any other intervention or no intervention with participants older than 55 years of age were eligible for inclusion. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Eleven RCTs fulfilling the inclusion criteria are included in this review. Two reviewers independently extracted the data from these included studies. MAIN RESULTS: Eight out of 11 studies reported that aerobic exercise interventions resulted in increased cardiorespiratory fitness of the intervention group (an improvement on the maximum oxygen uptake test which is considered to be the single best indicator of the cardiorespiratory system) of approximately 14% and this improvement coincided with improvements in cognitive capacity. The largest effects on cognitive function were found on motor function, auditory attention and delayed memory functions (effect sizes of 1.17, 0.52 and 0.50 respectively). However, the results for delayed memory functions should be interpreted with care since they are based on a single study. Moderate effects were observed for cognitive speed (speed at which information is processed; effect size 0.26) and visual attention (effect size 0.26). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence that aerobic physical activities which improve cardiorespiratory fitness are beneficial for cognitive function in healthy older adults, with effects observed for motor function, cognitive speed, delayed memory functions and auditory and visual attention. However, the majority of comparisons yielded no significant results. The data are insufficient to show that the improvements in cognitive function which can be attributed to physical exercise are due to improvements in cardiovascular fitness, although the temporal association suggests that this might be the case. Larger studies are still required to confirm whether the aerobic training component is necessary, or whether the same can be achieved with any type of physical exercise. At the same time, it would be informative to understand why some cognitive functions seem to improve with (aerobic) physical exercise while other functions seem to be insensitive to physical exercise. Clinicians and scientists in the field of neuropsychology should seek mutual agreement on a smaller battery of cognitive tests to use, in order to render research on cognition clinically relevant and transparent and heighten the reproducibility of results for future research.

Behavioural correlates of striatal glial fibrillary acidic protein in the 3-nitropropionic acid rat model: disturbed walking pattern and spatial orientation.

The 3-nitropropionic acid animal model is a model where excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress, mechanisms common to various neurodegenerative diseases, are involved. The present study investigated whether behavioural alterations in this model were related to striatal damage. Wistar and Lewis rats were exposed to 3-nitropropionic acid and their behavioural performance (open field, walking pattern and Morris Water Maze task) was tested after the injections and after a recovery period of 3 weeks. No changes in activity were found in the open field test. Altered walking pattern was observed in the footprint analysis, although a different response was observed in the Wistar rats compared to the Lewis rats. Initially increased latency times were observed during visual discrimination learning in the Morris Water Maze task in 3-nitropropionic acid-treated Wistar rats compared to Wistar controls. During spatial discrimination learning (invisible platform) in the Morris Water Maze task the swimming velocity was decreased in both rat strains as a result of 3-nitropropionic acid treatment. Increased striatal glial fibrillary acidic protein concentration in Wistar rats correlated with several parameters of the footprint analysis and with the latency and distance in visual as well as spatial discrimination learning in the Morris Water Maze. It is concluded that measurement of walking pattern and spatial orientation performance are sensitive indicators to monitor behavioural changes in relation to striatal degeneration in the 3-nitropropionic acid animal model. In addition, Lewis rats are less sensitive towards 3-nitropropionic acid treatment than Wistar rats.