Cognitive Planning Improved After Cycling Exercise in Older Adults with Down Syndrome

Cognitive functions are a crucial part of daily living, especially for adults with Down syndrome (DS) who have a high likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease in adulthood. In addition, adults with DS move slower and are not meeting the standard aerobic activity guidelines each week. The aim of this study was to examine if Assisted Cycle Therapy (ACT) would improve cognitive planning as measured by the Tower of London (TOL), set switching as measured by the modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and spatial memory as measured by the Corsi Block Test in adults with DS as compared to self-paced cycling.

Twenty-four participants were randomly assigned to one of two interventions over eight weeks. (1) Thirteen older adults with DS completed the ACT intervention, which is stationary cycling with the assistance of a motor to maintain a cadence at least 35% greater than voluntary cycling. (2) Eleven older adults with DS completed voluntary cycling (VC).

Our results showed that cognitive planning as measured by total correct score in the TOL showed improvement for both ACT and VC after 8 weeks of exercise, F(1, 22) = 6.22, p = 0.021. There were no significant differences for spatial memory or set switching.

We concluded that cycling exercise has a positive impact on cognitive function, especially problem solving in older adults with DS. Our results are discussed with respect to upregulation of neurotrophic factors that increase functioning in the prefrontal cortex that accompanies exercise and leads to improvements in cognitive planning which is essential to many activities of daily living and quality of life for older adults with DS.