Aerobic Exercise Improves Cognition, Even in Young Adults:
Aerobic exercise is known to improve cognition in the elderly; a new study at Columbia University’s Taub Institute shows it’s good for adults as young as 20.
In brief
Aerobic
exercise training improves cognition, even for young and middle-aged
adults, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia
University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The study
of 132 adults between the ages of 20 and 67 found that aerobic exercise
training increases executive function—cognitive processes important for
reasoning, planning, and problem-solving—in adults as young as 20,
although the effect was stronger with increasing age.
Why it matters
The
study indicates that aerobic exercise training improves cognition in
younger adults, suggesting that exercise can prevent or slow the
appearance of at least some age-related cognitive changes.
The
flexibility of the exercise protocol, in which participants choose when
and how to exercise, could make the intervention more attractive to the
general population and increase its chances for adoption.
Previous studies focused on elderly
Most
previous studies of exercise and cognition have focused on the elderly,
and those that include young adults were small and did not include a
randomly assigned control group.
In the new study, Yaakov Stern,
PhD, chief of cognitive neuroscience in the department of Neurology and a
faculty member in the Taub Institute, and Richard Sloan, PhD, chief of
behavioral medicine, assigned 132 individuals with below median aerobic
capacity to an aerobic exercise training program or to a control program
of stretching and core-strengthening exercises.
All participants
worked out at a local YMCA four times a week, and those in the exercise
group could choose any form of aerobic exercise as long as they reached
target heart rates. Data from heart rate monitors worn by the
participants were downloaded to an on-site computer.
Participants
were tested for executive function, processing speed, language,
attention, and episodic memory prior to being assigned to groups and at
12 and 24 weeks.
Exercise improves the brain’s executive function
After
24 weeks, there was significant improvement in executive function in
the aerobic exercise group for participants of all ages, and the greater
the participant’s age, the greater the improvement in executive
function.
“Executive function usually peaks around age 30,” Stern
says, “and I think that aerobic exercise is good at rescuing lost
function, as opposed to increasing performance in those without a
decline.”
Executive function underlies many day-to-day activities.
For example.e bill paying requires planning, organizing, and shifting
from one related task to another. These activities rely on intact
executive function.
Aerobic exercise did not improve cognitive
function in processing speed, language, attention, or episodic memory
for participants of any age. Some studies have found that aerobic
exercise improves these features in adults above 55, and Stern says that
a larger study may be able to detect improvement in younger adults.
It’s also possible that exercise has different effects in young vs.
older adults.
Aerobic exercise increases gray matter in brain
Brain
imaging at baseline and 24 weeks revealed that aerobic exercise
training is associated with significantly increased cortical thickness
in the left caudal middle frontal cortex. The increase in gray matter
was not associated with the participant’s age. And increases in gray
matter did not correlate directly with a corresponding change in any
cognitive domain.
Still, several aerobic exercise studies in older
adults have noted comparable changes in the frontal lobe, suggesting
that aerobic exercise has a beneficial effect on a brain area that is
associated with executive function.
More Information
Yaakov
Stern also is professor of neuropsychology in the Departments of
Neurology and Psychiatry and a member of the Gertrude H. Sergievsky
Center and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and
the Aging Brain at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Richard Sloan is the Nathaniel Wharton Professor of Behavioral Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry.
The
study, “Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Cognition in Younger Adults: A
Randomized Clinical Trial,” appeared online January 30th in the journal
Neurology.
