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Aerobic and cognitive function:

Neurocognitive deficits are widely accepted as a core feature of many disorders such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, Parkinson and some causes of obesity and stroke. Multiple cognitive domains are embroiled, for instance working memory, attention and executive function. The severity of these functions predicts the impairment in social function, cognition and emotion processing, which serves as a main obstacle beyond neurocognitive deficits. Many studies suggest that physical training can improve cognitive function not only in clinical population but also in healthy population/subjects, particularly in attention, memory, speed and visuospatial learning processes. Indeed, physical exercises could play a central role to increase the volume of the brain, mainly in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, especially after several months of aerobic/cardio training program ; ;

Physical exercise intervention has been associated with raised neural growth factors for example brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is essential in facilitating synaptic plasticity, cell survival and neurogenesis. Increased serum BDNF levels were associated to enhancements in physical fitness as a result of cardio training intervention program. From a brain imaging studies perspective, aerobic exercise is correlated with reducing age related atrophy in healthy older adults, additionally raised perfusion in domains that support executive control and memory functions. Furthermore, aerobic training improves the performance of the frontal lobe by raising the activity of the prefrontal cortex in young adults.

—Aerobic and cognitive function in adults: In fact, cardio exercise is helpful for cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Cognitive deterioration is common in older adults and increases with age, nevertheless, lifestyle factors could improve cognitive aging. Research on exercise has demonstrated that regular exercise is correlated with better cognitive functioning and reduces cognitive deterioration in later life. For instance, aerobic training for six months increased gray and white matter volume in the dorsolateral cortex which is vulnerable to the effects of aging, investigated by neuroimaging studies. Recently, there is an increase in the evidence that physical exercise supports healthy ageing. The aerobic training program, in particular, might have beneficial effects on cognitive function through older adults. This training for adults with Alzheimer’s disorder (AD) is connected with decreased whole brain atrophy and raised in white matter integrity which means decrease risk of dementia as well as slower cognitive decline. In addition, increasing white matter volume in healthy adult and growth of brain tissue in children. one study indicated that a six month aerobic exercise program for older adults between 55-77 year olds leads to change in the activation of the prefrontal brain which causes enhancements on a laboratory test of executive function.

There is an improvement in cognitive function after 6 months of cardio exercise intervention in older adults with mild cognitive deterioration. These effects were more obvious in female than male. Furthermore, these positive effects were noticed on executive control abilities such selective attention, processing speed and cognitive flexibility. Gender is related to the metabolic effects of exercise in cognitive response, also the indicator of glucoregulation and insulin sensitivity were improved for female only. In addition, women who join in heavy to moderate exercise have a chance to decrease the risk of developing cognitive deterioration, whereas men not. Also, the size of effectiveness for female was more than double than for male "(F= 0.72, F= 0.33, respectively)". This result is compatible with a meta-analysis study that reported female had a larger beneficial effects of aerobic training. In particular, aerobic training could play a major role in reducing the rate of deterioration in cognitive symptoms for a patient who has a mild cognitive deterioration.

Older adults with a long history of exercise would protect some part of the regional brain from atrophy. The high regions in the brain which may be preserved were in the frontal and parietal regions which are responsible for higher cognition aspects. The prefrontal cortex is an essential structure for executive control, which is defined "as a subset of cognitive functions involving work memory, inhibitory control, task switching and mental flexibility". Thus, the prefrontal cortex has the potential to be sensitive to the beneficial effects of training. Another research investigated this fact by assessing two groups of older adults for six months, the first group joined in the aerobic training program and the second group was a control group (with no aerobic training). The final conclusions of this study showed raise in the volume of both gray and white matter which a located in the prefrontal and temporal lobes.

A systematic review was conducted to identify all controlled trials to assess the effect of cardio exercise intervention on the hippocampal volumes in clinical and non-clinical populations. The final findings concluded that there was no effect of cardio exercise on total hippocampal volume, whilst a significant effect was observed on left hippocampal volumes due to aerobic training. Considering that, there is a link between the effects of cardio on the volume of hippocampus and improvements cardiorespiratory fitness. Hence, exercise occurred to increase the cardiorespiratory fitness which is positively correlated with the enhancements in cognitive performance. Furthermore, taking into account the broader benefits of reducing depression symptoms, metabolic risk and physical capacities, the volume of the hippocampus was increased amongst patients with schizophrenia and older adults due to exercise.

Regular physical exercise in adults who suffer from depression and anxiety disorders would reduce the symptoms associated with these disorders. One of the most common symptoms in a patient with depression or anxiety is a deficit in attention or memory. On this basis, it may be inferred that physical training with those causes can enhance cognitive function. The final findings suggest that cardio training program improves motor function and cognition in particular, executive control in mild to moderate Parkinson’s disorder (PD). Moreover,the effects of aerobic walking in cognition in PD for 6 months, 3 times per week, 45 minutes per session, was investigated and they found there was improvement in executive control in mild to moderate PD. By contrast, some studies have found benefits for memory and language.

—Aerobic and cognitive function in children:

Children with attention deficits and hyperactivity disorders have deficits in executive functions and other cognitive domains. Aerobic training could improve these deficits. Physical exercise is one of the different type of interventions that improve executive function in children, and only 20 minute sessions of exercise are needed to achieve greater enhancements of cognitive performance. However, the positive influence of cardio training in children on this executive function component is because the high functional plasticity of the brain through this developmental period.

Physical training is correlated with an improved cognitive function in children, especially in obese children. Obesity is an epidemic issue with major health consequences in children which leads to poor IQ and academic achievement. Exercise will be most effective and improve the cognition and executive function such as the ability to plan, self-monitor and initiate. The results demonstrate that there is a direct relation between improvement in executive function and exercise, which means that training has a positive influence on executive function in research amongst overweight children. We can notice a greater improvement in cognitive function as they are in the dynamic phase of development of the structure in the central nervous system (e.g. pruning of synapses), than older adults, whose brain structures are in a different condition. Thus, the improvement in executive function which is gained from aerobic training could continue if undertaken for a year rather than just a few months. A healthy dose of physical training in school might enhance cognitive function and academic achievement ;.