Six-minute walking distance correlated with memory and brain volume in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a voxel-based morphometry study.
OBJECTIVE
High fitness levels play an important role in maintaining memory function and delaying the progression of structural brain changes in older people at risk of developing dementia. However, it is unclear which specific regions of the brain volume are associated with exercise capacity. We investigated whether exercise capacity, determined by a 6-min walking distance (6MWD), is associated with measures of logical and visual memory and where gray matter regions correlate with exercise capacity in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).


METHODS
Ninety-one community-dwelling older adults with MCI completed a 6-min walking test, structural magnetic resonance imaging scanning, and memory tests. The Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Logical Memory and Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Tests were used to assess logical and visual memory, respectively.


RESULTS
The logical and visual memory tests were positively correlated with the 6MWD (p < 0.01). Poor performance in the 6MWD was correlated with a reduced cerebral gray matter volume in the left middle temporal gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, and hippocampus in older adults with MCI.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that a better 6MWD performance may be related to better memory function and the maintenance of gray matter volume in older adults with MCI.
Section for Health Promotion, Center for Gerontology and Social Science, Tokyo, Japan ; Section for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Hyuma
H
Makizako
Hiroyuki
H
Shimada
Takehiko
T
Doi
Hyuntae
H
Park
Daisuke
D
Yoshida
Takao
T
Suzuki
Brain atrophy; Cognitive impairment; Exercise capacity; Fitness; Logical memory; Visual memory; Walking