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Aerobic Exercise Enhances Cognitive Flexibility

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Abstract

Introduction Physical activity is believed to prevent cognitive decline and may enhance frontal lobe activity. Methods Subjects were 91 healthy adults enrolled in a wellness center. Over a 10 week intervention, controls were aerobically active 0–2 days per week. Half the intervention group was active 3–4 days/week and half 5–7 days/week. Outcome measures included memory, mental speed, reaction time, attention, and cognitive flexibility. Results Neurocognitive data were analyzed by repeated measures comparing minimal aerobic exercise (the control group) to moderate aerobic exercise (3–4 days/week), and to high aerobic exercise (5–7 days/week). Initial analyses noted significant improvements in mental speed (p = .03), attention (p = .047), and cognitive flexibility (p = .002). After controlling for age, gender, education, and changes in psychomotor speed, only cognitive flexibility still showed significant improvements (p = .02). Conclusion Over a 10 week period, increasing frequency of aerobic activity was shown to be associated with enhanced cognitive performance, in particular cognitive flexibility, a measure of executive function.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank St Anthony’s Health Care in St Petersburg, Florida for funding and supporting this study at the Carillon Wellness Center, in particular Gil Peri and Wendy Weaver. We are also grateful to the Morton Plant Hospital library staff and research team, including Karen Roth, Sharon Phillips, Meg Kanuck, and Jeanne Pitman.

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Correspondence to Steven Masley.

Appendix: The CNS VS Battery: Psychometric Properties

Appendix: The CNS VS Battery: Psychometric Properties

The CNS Vital Signs Battery contains seven tests that are widely used by neuropsychologists, and known to be reliable and valid (Baker et al., 1985; Gualtieri & Johnson, 2006b, c; Gualtieri et al., 2006). The tests embrace an appropriate span of cognitive domains, and are known to be sensitive to most of the causes of mild cognitive dysfunction.

Verbal memory (VBM) and visual memory (VIM) are adaptations of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and the Rey Visual Design Learning Test (Rey, 1964; Taylor, 1959) VBM and VIM are recognition tests, however, not tests of recall. Correct responses from VBM and VIM are summed to generate a composite memory or memory domain score.

The finger tapping test (FTT) is one of the core tests of the Halstead-Reitan Battery. Symbol digit coding (SDC) is based on the symbol digit modalities test (Smith, 1982), itself a variant of the Wechsler digit symbol substitution test. The total of right and left taps from the FTT and total correct responses on the SDC generates a composite score for “psychomotor speed.”

The Stroop Test (ST) in the CNS VS has three parts that generate simple and complex reaction times. Averaging the two complex reaction time scores from the Stroop test generates a domain score for “reaction time.” It might be more precise to refer to this domain as “information processing speed.”

The Shifting Attention Test (SAT) measures the subject’s ability to shift from one instruction set to another quickly and accurately. Color-shape tests like the SAT have been used in cognitive imaging studies (Le, Pardo, & Hu, 1998; Nagahama et al., 1998) A domain score for cognitive flexibility is generated by taking the number of correct responses on the SAT and subtracting the number of errors on the SAT and the Stroop test.

The Continuous Performance Test is a measure of vigilance or sustained attention (Rosvold & Delgado, 1956). A domain score for “complex attention” is generated by adding the number of errors committed in the CPT, the SAT and the Stroop.

Because the presentation of stimuli is randomized, no two presentations of CNS VS are ever the same; so, the test battery is appropriate for serial administration. Several of the tests draw stimuli from a “reservoir” of words or figures (VBM, VIM, SDC). Several tests record reaction times with millisecond accuracy (VBM, VIM, FTT, ST, SAT, CPT).

The CNS VS battery has been normed in 1,069 normal subjects. Test–retest reliability of the CNS VS battery is comparable to those reported for similar, traditional tests and to similar tests in other computerized test batteries.

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Masley, S., Roetzheim, R. & Gualtieri, T. Aerobic Exercise Enhances Cognitive Flexibility. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 16, 186–193 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-009-9159-6

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