Exercise Effects on Brain Health and Learning From Minutes to Months

NCT03114150 | Completed Results DMC

• 2 other identifiers: 2017058001R01AG055500-01
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 122
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Given the accelerating growth of older adults worldwide and the decline in cognitive function with aging, therapeutics that remediate age-related cognitive decline are needed more than ever. The proposed research seeks to better understand and enhance the detection of exercise effects on hippocampal network function and learning and memory, which decline with aging and Alzheimer's. Success would lead to new ways to detect benefits of exercise on cognitive aging and would lead to mechanistic insight on how such plasticity is possible while also informing prevention strategies.

Conditions

Sedentary Lifestyle

Keywords

physical activity; aging; learning and memory; exercise; brain

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in Hippocampal-dependent Learning

  Learning rate on constructs that have been examined in animal models including context acquisition, episodic associations, and spatial navigation. The primary outcome is reported for the spatial navigation task that is associated with hippocampal structure and function, which is learning in the wayfinding condition. We report change in slope for wayfinding learning trials. The slope is computed based on the proportion of items correctly recalled on a map, over four learning trials. For each trial, proportion correct can range from 0 to 1, and a higher number represents faster learning, which is better.

  Baseline, 24-weeks

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Change in Hippocampal-cortical Functional Connectivity

  Baseline, 30 minutes

• Change in Hippocampal-cortical Functional Connectivity

  Baseline, 24-weeks

• Change in Cardiorespiratory Fitness

  Baseline, 24-weeks

Study Arms (2)

Cardiorespiratory fitness training

EXPERIMENTAL

Cardiorespiratory fitness training will be a 24-week supervised cycling program designed to improve cardiorespiratory fitness, with supervision directly from the research team. All participants will first receive a one-on-one orientation with an exercise training specialist that has been trained by Dr. Gary Pierce in monitoring an exercise program for healthy older adults. Training will start with a 5 minute-warm-up, 20 minutes moderate intensity cycling and 30 minutes light intensity cycling, and 5 minute cool-down per session, for 3 sessions/week. In each additional week, 6 minutes of moderate intensity cycling per session will be added, until the total time for moderate intensity is 50 minutes per session by the start of week 5 (with additional 5 minute warm-up and 5 minute cool-down).

Behavioral: Cardiorespiratory fitness training

Functional fitness training

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Functional fitness training will be a 24-week supervised exercise program designed to focus on functional flexibility and mobility, with supervision directly from our research team. All participants will first receive a one-on-one orientation with an exercise training specialist that has been trained by Dr. Gary Pierce in monitoring an exercise program for healthy older adults. Training will start with a 5 minute-warm-up, 20 minutes of light intensity cycling and 20 minutes of dynamic stretching to increase range of motion and functional fitness, for 3 sessions/week. In each additional week, additional stretches will be added to maintain variety and improve flexibility of all major muscle groups.

Behavioral: Functional fitness training

Interventions

Cardiorespiratory fitness training BEHAVIORAL

Physical exercise of moderate intensity designed to improve cardiorespiratory fitness

Cardiorespiratory fitness training

Functional fitness training BEHAVIORAL

Physical exercise of light intensity designed to improve functional fitness

Functional fitness training

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 55 Years - 80 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Eligible to participate in an aerobic exercise intervention based on the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire, and corrected vision of 20/40.
• Approval from a physician that monitored electrocardiography (ECG) response during a maximal aerobic fitness test that is part of the second study visit described below.
• Exercising less than 60 minutes a week for the past calendar year

You may not qualify if:

• Not between the ages of 55 and 80 years old
• Not fluent in English
• Score \< 20 (out of 30) on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)
• Inability to comply with experimental instructions
• Qualify as "high risk" for acute cardiovascular event by the published standards of the American College of Sports Medicine
• Previous diagnosis of neurological, metabolic, or psychiatric condition, and no previous brain injury associated with loss of consciousness
• Inability to complete an MRI

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Michelle W. Voss: lead
• National Institute on Aging (NIA): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa, 52242-1401, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Sedentary Behavior; Motor Activity

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Results Point of Contact

• Title: Dr. Michelle Voss, Study Principal Investigator
• Organization: The University of Iowa

michelle-voss@uiowa.edu

319-335-2057

Study Officials

• Michelle W Voss, PhD

  University of Iowa

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Publication Agreements

• PI is Sponsor Employee: No
• Restrictive Agreement: No

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 30, 2017
• First Posted: April 14, 2017
• Study Start: May 1, 2018
• Primary Completion: June 21, 2023
• Study Completion: June 21, 2023
• Last Updated: August 13, 2025
• Results First Posted: August 13, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: We will share baseline neuroimaging data and phenotypic data upon completion of data collection. We will share the intervention outcome data after we have published our results from each primary aim.
• Access Criteria: We will share on an open platform such as OpenNeuro (https://openneuro.org/).

Locations

US (1)