Aerobic Exercise to Improve Executive Language Function In Older Adults

US Department of Veterans Affairs20 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to see if exercise can improve brain function in older adults

Recently, considerable attention has been devoted to examining the beneficial relationship between cognition and aerobic exercise in older adults. Specifically, the effects are thought to involve higher order cognitive processes, such as working memory, switching between tasks, and inhibiting irrelevant information, all of which are thought to be sub- served, in part, by the frontal lobes (Colcombe et al., 2006). Importantly, these areas also are most susceptible to age-related decline (Raz, 2000) and are essential resources for language production (Kemper \& Sumner, 2001; Murray \& Lenz, 2001). However, despite promising cognitive improvement, changes in frontally-mediated executive language functions have been widely ignored. This is unfortunate considering impaired word retrieval compromises communicative effectiveness, leading to frustration, depression, and withdrawal. Perhaps more importantly, communication ineffectiveness, particularly in the elderly, leads to difficulties interacting with health care professionals leading to further health care burdens. Since cognition, and specifically word retrieval difficulties, usually remain untreated, it is important to find treatment strategies for minimizing these deficits. Therefore, the short-term goal and the purpose of this proposal is to examine the potential of aerobic exercise to improve executive language function in older adults.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Aging

Interventions

Aerobic groupBEHAVIORAL

12 weeks of aerobic exercise 3 times a week

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 65 YearsMax age: 89 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Consent of participants' primary health care physicians to participate in the aerobic exercise. * Patients must not have participated in any consistent exercise program or experimental study for at least 3 months prior to enrollment. * They must be capable of providing informed consent and complying with the trial procedures. Exclusion Criteria: * Demented as defined by the Modified Mini Mental Status Exam. * Unalterable travel schedules. * Site accessibility constraints.

Locations (2)

North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL

Gainesville, Florida, United States

Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur, GA

Decatur, Georgia, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Executive Language Functions

The Verbal Fluency Test is demonstrated to be reliable and valid among adults aged 50 to 89 (Delis, et al., 2001; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, \& Hodnack, 2004). The Verbal Fluency Test has three conditions, Letter Verbal Fluency, Category Verbal Fluency, and Switching Verbal Fluency. Each was randomized at pre- and post-12 week timeline and equated for difficulty. Letter Verbal Fluency assesses the number of words beginning with certain letters that participants can generate within 60 seconds,the Category Verbal Fluency assesses the number of words within particular categories participants can generate within 60 seconds, and the Switching Verbal Fluency assesses the number of words while alternating between different categories participants can generate within 60 seconds. For each condition (letter, category, and switching) a total score representing the total number of correct

Time frame: number of correct words at pre and post separated by 12 weeks

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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