Ahmed Fayeza S, Guenther Benjamin A, Thompson Jennifer L, Lagerstrom Lindsey, Robbins Michael A
Department of Psychology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA.
Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2025 Jul-Aug;32(4):978-992. doi: 10.1080/23279095.2023.2228952. Epub 2023 Jul 4.
Moderate- to vigorous intensities of physical activity are recommended for health promotion, including brain health. Regular physical activity is considered a modifiable factor to delay -perhaps prevent- onset of dementias such as Alzheimer's disease. Little is known about the benefits of light physical activity. We analyzed data from a 998 community-dwelling, cognitively unimpaired participants from the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study (MSLS) and investigated the role of light physical activity, defined by walking pace, across two time points. Results revealed light levels of walking pace were associated with higher performance at the first timepoint and less decline by time 2 in the domains of verbal abstract reasoning and visual scanning and tracking, which includes both processing speed and executive function skills. When examining change over time ( = 583), increasing walking pace was associated with less decline at time two for the domains of visual scanning and tracking, working memory, visual spatial ability, and working memory, but not verbal abstract reasoning. These findings highlight the relevance of light physical activity and the need to investigate its contribution to cognitive function. From a public health perspective, this may encourage more adults to adopt a light level of exercise and still reap health benefits.
为促进健康，包括大脑健康，建议进行中等至剧烈强度的体育活动。定期进行体育活动被认为是一个可改变的因素，可延缓——或许还能预防——诸如阿尔茨海默病等痴呆症的发作。关于轻度体育活动的益处，人们所知甚少。我们分析了来自缅因州-锡拉丘兹纵向研究（MSLS）的998名社区居住、认知未受损参与者的数据，并在两个时间点研究了以步行速度定义的轻度体育活动的作用。结果显示，在言语抽象推理以及视觉扫描与追踪（包括处理速度和执行功能技能）领域，轻度步行速度水平与第一个时间点的较高表现相关，且到第二个时间点时下降较少。在研究随时间的变化时（n = 583），步行速度的增加与第二个时间点视觉扫描与追踪、工作记忆、视觉空间能力和工作记忆领域的较少下降相关，但与言语抽象推理无关。这些发现凸显了轻度体育活动的相关性以及研究其对认知功能贡献的必要性。从公共卫生角度来看，这可能会鼓励更多成年人进行轻度运动并仍然获得健康益处。
