Effect of Multi-Mode Exercise on Cognitive Function and Neuroplasticity in the Elderly with MCI

Objective: To explore the effects of multi-mode exercise on cognitive function, neurotrophic factors(NFs), β-amploid(Aβ), Tau protein and hippocampal subarea volume of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment(MCI). Methods: 25 healthy and25 MCI elderly subjects were enrolled in this study, and they were randomly divided into exercise and control groups, respectively.The exercise group completed 20 weeks of multi-mode exercise intervention. The cognitive function, blood biochemical indexes and hippocampal subfields volume atrophy rate were evaluated before and after the intervention. Paired comparisons and correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: 1) The cognitive function, attention, verbal fluency and logical memory were improved significantly in the MCI exercise group after intervention(P<0.01); 2) The content of Aβ1-42 in exercise group with MCI was increased significantly(P<0.01), and the content of Tau protein in the control group was increased significantly(P<0.05), the level of NFs in exercise group was increased significantly(P<0.01); 3) The atrophy rate of LCA1(P<0.01) and LDG(P<0.05) in exercise group was significantly lower than that of control group; 4) The changes of cognitive function were negatively correlated with the atrophying rates of LCA1 and LCA4, Aβ1-42 and Tau protein, but it was positively correlated with the changes of NFS.Conclusions: Multi-mode exercise can improve the overall cognitive function, attention and verbal fluency in the elderly, and it have a certain recovery and therapeutic effect on the elderly with MCI. However, the multi-mode exercise has no significant effect on logical memory and executive function. It can increase the content of Aβ1-42 in peripheral blood, decrease the content of Tau protein,increase the level of NFs, and delay the atrophying of CA1, CA4 and DG in hippocampus.