Sandroff Brian M, Motl Robert W
Center for Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research, Kessler Foundation, 1199 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ, 07052, USA.
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rutgers NJ Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2025 Sep 11;25(1):61. doi: 10.1007/s11910-025-01450-6.
There is increasing interest in the study of exercise training as an approach to treat the cognitive consequences of multiple sclerosis (MS). The current paper reviews recent research on exercise training effects on cognition in MS, and provides several future directions for guiding, and perhaps optimizing, research in this area.
Overall, the newest evidence in this field is associated with substantial heterogeneity in study characteristics (i.e., sample sizes, demographic/clinical characteristics, exercise interventions, control/comparator conditions). The studies further focused on different primary outcomes, such that cognition is inconsistently included as a primary outcome. As a result, the study results were heterogeneous overall. Collectively, evidence on exercise training as an approach to improve cognition in persons with MS over the past two decades is mixed, and the efficacy or effectiveness of such an approach has not yet been established. Based on recently published studies, we believe that future research will involve stronger, better-designed RCTs that evaluate exercise, as a standalone and/or combinatory approach for improving cognition in MS, that are founded upon hypothesized mechanisms-of-action regarding adaptations in the central nervous system.
作为治疗多发性硬化症（MS）认知后果的一种方法，运动训练研究越来越受到关注。本文回顾了近期关于运动训练对MS认知影响的研究，并为指导以及可能优化该领域的研究提供了几个未来方向。
总体而言，该领域的最新证据与研究特征（即样本量、人口统计学/临床特征、运动干预、对照/比较条件）的显著异质性相关。这些研究进一步聚焦于不同的主要结局，以至于认知作为主要结局的纳入情况并不一致。因此，研究结果总体上是异质性的。总体而言，过去二十年中关于运动训练作为改善MS患者认知的一种方法的证据好坏参半，并且这种方法的疗效或有效性尚未得到证实。基于最近发表的研究，我们认为未来的研究将涉及更强、设计更好的随机对照试验（RCT），这些试验将评估运动作为改善MS认知的独立和/或联合方法，其基于关于中枢神经系统适应性的假设作用机制。
