Effects of Sport Stacking on Neuropsychological, Neurobiological, and Brain Function Performances in Patients With Mild Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of sport stacking on the overall cognition and brain function in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).MethodsA single-blind randomized controlled design was performed using sport stacking for 30 min, 5 days/week for 12 weeks. Forty-eight subjects with mild AD or MCI were randomly divided into the sport stacking group (T-mAD = 12, T-MCI = 12) and the active control group (C-mAD = 11, C-MCI = 13). Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study–Activities of Daily Living scale (ADCS-ADL), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-30), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were performed, the level of amyloid β-protein-40 (Aβ-40), Aβ-42, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and soluble trigger receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (sTREM2) in plasma were tested, and brain functional connectivity in resting state and activation under finger movement task were analyzed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).ResultsThirty-nine patients completed the trial. After 4 weeks, we found a significant increase in AVLT score in T-MCI (6.36 ± 5.08 vs. −1.11 ± 4.23, p = 0.004), and T-mAD group (4.60 ± 4.77 vs. −0.11 ± 2.89, p = 0.039). After 12 weeks, there was a significantly improved in AVLT (9.64 ± 4.90 vs. −0.33 ± 6.10, p = 0.002) and ADCS-ADL (3.36 ± 3.59 vs. −1.89 ± 2.71, p = 0.003) in T-MCI. There was a significant improvement in AVLT (5.30 ± 5.42 vs. 0.44 ± 2.40) in T-mAD (p < 0.05). Plasma levels of BDNF were upregulated in both T-MCI and T-mAD, and IGF-1 increased in T-MCI (P < 0.05) compared to the control groups. The functional connectivity in MCI patients between DLPFC.R and SCA.R, SMA.L, and SCA.R was decreased. In contrast, in mAD patients, the brain regional function connection was increased between DLPFC.R and Broca's.L. The activation of channel 36 located in the left primary somatosensory cortex was significantly increased after 12-week training, which was correlated with the improved AVLT and the increase of BDNF.ConclusionOur findings suggested that sport stacking is effective for patients with MCI and mild AD, possibly through increasing the expression of neuroprotective growth factors and enhancing neural plasticity to improve neurocognitive performance.Clinical Trial Registrationhttps://www.ClinicalTrials.gov, ChiCTR.org.cn, identifier: ChiCTR-2100045980.

Comparative efficacy of various exercise interventions on sleep in patients with cognitive impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Alzheimer’s disease was diagnosed using either the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-V) or the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke-Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRA). Of the nine studies included in this systematic review and meta-analysis, two reported on AD ( 28 , 33 ), six enrolled MCI ( 25–27 , 29 , 30 , 32 , 33 ), and one reported on both AD and MCI ( 31 ). Four studies reported sleep problems before exercise interventions ( 26–28 , 33 ).…”

“…The present meta-analysis examined the effects of various types of physical exercise on health outcomes. Specifically, four studies employing aerobic exercise ( 25 , 28 , 29 , 33 ), three studies on mind–body exercise ( 27 , 30 , 31 ), and two studies utilizing multi-component exercise in conjunction with multiple exercise types ( 26 , 32 ) were included in the review, without resistance exercise intervention. The exercise time of each intervention ranged from 20–150 min, with frequency ranging from once a week to once a day.…”

A systematic review of near-infrared spectroscopy in dementia

“…Concerning studies directly assessing motor function, none used naturalistic tasks, such as walking or social interaction, but used simplistic motor tasks, such as hand-grip movements [84] and finger tapping [85]. This is surprising due to the advantages that NIRS has in terms of low sensitivity to movement and lack of physical restrictions, and the characteristic motor symptoms of certain dementia subtypes, such as DLB [86], which cannot be easily explored using imaging techniques such as MRI or PET.…”

Brain network mechanism on cognitive control task in the elderly with brain aging: A functional near infrared spectroscopy study

“…Overall, in order to remove the low-frequency elements from the original signal, a sixth-order Butterworth band-pass filter was used to obtain the 0.1–0.2 Hz filter signal. Then, the sliding averaging method is used to remove the signal noise to improve the signal-to-noise ratio ( Huppert et al, 2009 ); ➃ Calculate the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxyhaemoglobin by the Hemo module; ➄ Calculate the eigenvalues of the forward and backward judgment tests with Block design ( Yang et al, 2022 ).…”