Therapeutic effects of aerobic exercise on EEG parameters and higher cognitive functions in mild cognitive impairment patients

Abstract Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is becoming an emerging problem for developing countries where there is an increase in expected age. There is no specific curative therapeutic treatment available for these patients. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate short and long-term changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG) parameters and cognition of MCI patients with aerobic exercises. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 40 patients which were randomly divided into two groups, ‘aerobic exercise treatment group (n = 21)’ and ‘no-aerobic control group (n = 19)’. Short-term effects of exercise were measured after single session of exercise and long-term effects were measured after an 18 sessions (6 weeks) treatment. The outcomes which were measured were, electroenphelogram paramaters (slowness and complexity of the EEG) and cognitive functions (using mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), and trail making test (TMT) A and B). Results: After one session of aerobic exercise there were significant improvements in slowness (delta waves; 0.678 ± 0.035 vs 0.791 ± 0.033; p = .015) and complexity (0.601 ± 0.051 vs 0.470 ± 0.042; p = .027) of the EEG in aerobic exercise treated group as compared to no-aerobic exercise group. After six weeks there were significant improvements in slowness (delta waves; 0.581 ± 0.036 vs 0.815 ± 0.025; p = .005) and complexity (0.751 ± 0.045 vs 0.533 ± 0.046; p = .001) of the EEG in the aerobic group as compared to no-aerobic group. Moreover, significant improvements were observed in the MMSE (p = .032), MoCA (p = .036), TMT-A (p = .005), and TMT-B (p = .007) in aerobic exercise group as compared to no-aerobic group. Conclusion: Aerobic exercise showed improvement in cognition after short and long-term treatment in MCI subjects and can be used as potential therapeutic candidate.