Neurology
The impact of physical activity on cognitive resilience in memory, language, and executive function: Evidence from Framingham Heart Study. Tianyu Liu* Tianyu Liu Phillip H Hwang
Background
Physical activity has been recognized as a key lifestyle factor that potentially mitigates the effects of neurodegeneration and preserves cognitive function. However, the relationship between physical activity and cognitive resilience in specific domains remains underexplored, especially regarding the moderating effect of age.
Methods
A total of 1,163 individuals aged 40 to 65 who attended Exam 5 between 1991 and 1995 were selected from the Offspring cohort of the Framingham Heart Study. They were followed until they concluded their first neuropsychological (NP) test over age 60. Physical activity was based on the physical activity index (PAI), which is a derived measure of total activity level based on a physical activity questionnaire. We used the residuals of memory, language, and executive function factor scores to assess the resilience outcome. These scores were predicted by total brain volume and hippocampal volume from structural brain magnetic resonance imaging. Linear regression was applied adjusting for age, sex, education, BMI, physical activity, smoking, alcohol, hypertension, and diabetes, and we performed a subgroup analysis by age categories with the cutoffs of 50 and 60.
Results
We found positive but insignificant associations between PAI and resilience to neurodegeneration across the entire population in memory, language, and executive function. For individuals aged over 60, the third PAI quantile was positively associated with the resilience in the language domain predicted by both total brain volume (β = 0.238, 95% CI: 0.072, 0.404) and hippocampal volume (β = 0.235, 0.069, 0.4) compared to the first PAI quantile. No significant relationships of PAI were observed in the other age groups analyzed in the subgroup assessment.
Conclusion
This long-term community-based cohort study suggests that higher physical activity levels play an important role in resilience to neurodegeneration, especially in the language domain among older adults.
