The effect of acute exercise on the performance of verbal fluency in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome: a pilot study

Abstract

Background The high prevalence of cognitive dysfunction is well documented in individuals with Down syndrome. However, only a few studies have focused on the effect of exercise on cognitive performance in this population. In particular, verbal fluency has been shown to be relevant to the early onset of Alzheimer's disease in individuals with Down syndrome. Thus, this study was aimed at investigating the relationship between acute exercise and verbal fluency in this population. Methods It was a pre-post design. Twenty-eight participants (aged 14-31) were assigned to highintensity exercise (i.e. 70-85% of predicted maximum heart rate) (N = 8), moderate-intensity exercise (i.e. 50-69% of predicted maximum heart rate) (N = 10) or attentional control (N = 10) groups. Two exercise groups walked on a treadmill using an incremental walking protocol, and the attentional control group watched a video for 20 min. Measures of verbal fluency (i.e. semantic fluency and phonetic fluency) were tested pre-intervention and post-intervention. Results The result showed a quadric trend between semantic fluency and intensity of exercise. The improvement in cognitive performance on semantic fluency test was observed in the moderate-intensity exercise. However, neither a linear trend nor a quadric trend was seen in phonetic fluency. Conclusions The result showed an inverted-U relationship between exercise intensity and semantic fluency. A larger sample size, testing time and more reliable psychophysiological measures (e.g. VO 2 max and neuroimaging technology), should be considered to explore the underlying mechanisms in this population.

Psychosocial Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease in Patients with Down Syndrome and Their Association with Brain Changes: A Narrative Review

“…A 12-week exercise program improved episodic memory in human studies, including people with DS [ 62 ]. These studies documented improvements in executive function assessments such as inhibition [ 63 , 64 ], attention shifting [ 65 ], response time [ 66 , 67 ], and semantic fluency [ 68 , 69 ]. However, there are differences in effect sizes and findings between these studies [ 52 ].…”

Acute effects of aerobic versus resistance exercises on cognitive function in individuals with intellectual disability

“…This later was a video session in which participants were sitting quietly in a comfortable chair and watched a selected sports‐related video provided by the researcher during 30 min without falling asleep or moving around. Such control session has been reported to be the most prevalent control condition in studies investigating the acute effects of physical exercise on cognitive performances (Pontifex et al, 2019) and widely used in previous studies conducted among individuals with cognitive performances alterations such as those with autism spectrum disorder (Bremer et al, 2020), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Piepmeier et al, 2015) and intellectual disability (Chen & Ringenbach, 2016; Chen & Ringenbach, 2019). Moreover, watching television or videos has been reported to be the most practiced recreational activities among individuals with intellectual disability (Buttimer & Tierney, 2005).…”

“…Therefore, to keep a high level of executive function, any approach that can enhance RT and WM among them is particularly relevant. Currently, there was an emerging body of literature regarding the acute effect of physical exercise on cognitive functions in individuals with intellectual disability suggesting a facilitator effect of acute exercise on different cognitive performances (Affes et al, 2021; Chen & Ringenbach, 2019; Ringenbach et al, 2014; Ringenbach et al, 2021; Vogt et al, 2013). The RT was one of the most investigated cognitive performances in the majority of these studies.…”

The Association between Physical Activity and CAMDEX-DS Changes Prior to the Onset of Alzheimer’s Disease in Down Syndrome

“…In human studies involving people with Down syndrome, episodic memory improvement has been associated with participation in a 12-week exercise programme [ 36 ]. Improvements have also been reported in post-intervention measures of executive function including inhibition [ 37 , 38 ], attention shifting [ 39 ], reaction time [ 40 , 41 ] and semantic fluency [ 42 , 43 ], although effect size and results vary between studies. This may be related to variations in the intensity, type and consistency of PA involved, as well as the study design.…”