Title:Sixteen Weeks of Aerobic Exercise does not Alter Resting-state Connectivity
of the Precuneus in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
Volume: 19
Issue: 2
Author(s): Christian Sandøe Musaeus*, Louise Baruël Johansen, Steen Hasselbalch, Nina Beyer, Peter Høgh, Hartwig Roman Siebner and Kristian Steen Frederiksen
Affiliation:
- Department of Neurology, Danish Dementia Research Centre (DDRC), University of Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet,
Denmark
Keywords:
Physical exercise, exercise, Alzheimer’s disease, default mode network, resting-state, fMRI.
Abstract:
Introduction: In healthy elderly persons and patients with mild cognitive impairment, physical
exercise can increase functional brain connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) measured by restingstate
functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). However, no studies have so far investigated the
effect of physical exercise on functional resting-state connectivity in the DMN in patients with Alzheimer’s
disease (AD).
Objective: In a single-blinded randomized controlled trial, we assessed the effects of an aerobic exercise
intervention of 16 weeks of physical exercise on DMN connectivity using rs-fMRI in patients with AD.
Methods: Forty-five patients were randomly assigned to either a control or exercise group. The exercise
group performed 60-min of aerobic exercise three times per week for 16 weeks. All the patients underwent
whole-brain rs-fMRI at 3 T, at baseline, and after 16 weeks. Since the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and
adjacent precuneus constitute a central hub of the DMN, this parietal region was defined as region-ofinterest
and used as the seed region for functional connectivity analysis of the rs-fMRI data treating age and
gender as covariates.
Results: Neither seed-based analysis, seeded in the PCC/precuneus region nor ICA-based analyses, focusing
on components of the DMN network, showed any exercise-induced changes in functional resting-state connectivity
from baseline to follow-up.
Conclusion: 16 weeks of aerobic exercise does not modify functional connectivity of the PCC/precuneus region
in patients with AD. A longer intervention may be needed to show the effect of exercise on brain connectivity.