University of California San Diego School of Medicine recently conducted a study that contributes to the collective research on the link between physical activity and cognitive performance. The analysis included subjects who belong to the middle-aged and older adult groups.
Accelerometers were utilized throughout the examination to quantify both the physical activities and the completed cognitive tests of the participants from their own homes.
Remote Study of Physical Activities and Brain Functions
UC San Diego School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry expert and author of the study Reanne Moore said in a Dynamite News report that the pandemic has made the world realize that the lifestyle interventions require to be conducted remotely.
Participants between 50 to 74 years old showed signs of improvement in their executive function tasks when their physical activity increased. When the same aspect decreased, the subjects also showed lower performance in their cognitive functions.
Moore explained that their findings highlight a very linear relationship between physical activities and cognitive performance. Moore added that their team hypothesized probable statistics but were not sure in the data collected because the increase of physical activity was not required from them. Basically, the group just did the normal activities they routinely do.
Fellow UC San Diego School of Medicine expert and first author of the study Zvinka Zlatar said in a ScienceDaily report that future interventions that require their team to quantify physical activities in subjects will help the study identify the physical activities carried out daily and how they correlate with the cognitive measurements collected through a remote approach and vice versa.
Correlation of Physical Activity and Cognition
The link between physical activity and cognitive functions remained when modifications were applied for various comorbidities such as education, age, ethnicity, sex, and HIV status. However, the records only held individuals who function dependently, relying on a separate person or individual for household tasks or billing management.
Moore said that in these groups, people find daily physical activity beneficial. This observation is prevalent in previous studies on Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.
Moore theorized that, because functionally independent adults tend to perform activities that are social and cognitively stimulating, physical activity impacts cognition at a lower rate.
The authors explained that their recent study could contribute to the novel digital health interventions on preserving brain health while aging.
Zlatar said they do not have conclusive data yet on the cumulative, long-term impact of the small fluctuations in a person's daily cognition. To gather information on these aspects, the team plans to conduct a supporting study in the future. It will focus on the intensities of physical activity performance under an unsupervised setup and how it is related to producing long-term improvements in behavior changes and neurological health.
The study titled "Daily Level Association of Physical Activity and Performance on Ecological Momentary Cognitive Tests in Free-living Environments: A Mobile Health Observational Study" was published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth.
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