Trial reportGeroScience2024
Mild exercise improves executive function with increasing neural efficiency in the prefrontal cortex of older adults.
Trial report in GeroScience, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Optimal type and dose of exercise for improving executive functions in older adults: a systematic review and Bayesian model-based network meta-analysis of RCTs.BMC geriatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of exercise on executive function in cognitively healthy older adults: a systematic review and three-level meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Rethinking exercise dose for cognitive ageing: a systematic review and meta-analysis of physical dose and cognitive-motor demands.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- The Immediate and sustained benefits of two-week high-frequency aerobic exercise on depressive symptoms and frontal function in subthreshold depression: A randomized controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Theta tACS Over the Medial Frontal Cortex Modulates Executive Function in Parkinson's Disease: A Randomized, Sham-Controlled Study.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Trial
- The effects of intensive mindfulness interventions on athletes' psychological states and cognitive performance: an fNIRS study.BMC psychology · 2026Trial
- Trial
- Associations of adiposity and physical fitness with hippocampaldependent mnemonic discrimination in postmenopausal women.Physical activity and nutrition · 2026Article
- Acute Skeletal Muscle Activation Through Physical Exercise and Its Effects on Cognitive Performance and Neurobiological Markers in Adults: A Scoping Review.Muscles (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Effect of Physical Activity on Executive Functions in the Elderly Population: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Resting-state blink rate does not increase following very-light-intensity exercise, but individual variation predicts executive function enhancement levels.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2025Article
- Healthy Cognitive Aging Through Movement: A Practical Approach of Light-Intensity Aerobic Dance for Older Adults.Advances in neurobiology · 2025Review
- Differential effects of physical activity on behavioral and prefrontal responses during repetitive inhibitory control in older adults.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Hemodynamics of short-duration light-intensity physical exercise in the prefrontal cortex of children: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cognitive Enhancement Strategies for Older Adults: An Evaluation of Different Training Modalities to Improve Executive Function-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Entorhinal cortex-hippocampal circuit connectivity in health and disease.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Review
- Exercise-induced neuroplasticity: a new perspective on rehabilitation for chronic low back pain.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2024Article
- Neural mechanisms of the relationship between aerobic fitness and working memory in older adults: An fNIRS study.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Effects of low-intensity home-based exercise on cognition in older persons with mild cognitive impairment: a direct comparison of aerobic versus resistance exercises using a randomized controlled trial design.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Slow running benefits: Boosts in mood and facilitation of prefrontal cortex function even at very light intensity.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
This study examined whether a 3-month mild-exercise intervention could improve executive function in healthy middle-aged and older adults in a randomized control trial. Ultimately, a total of 81 middle-aged and older adults were randomly assigned to either an exercise group or a control group. The exercise group received 3 months of mild cycle exercise intervention (3 sessions/week, 30-50 min/session). The control group was asked to behave as usual for the intervention period. Before and after the intervention, participants did color-word matching Stroop tasks (CWST), and Stroop interference (SI)-related reaction time (RT) was assessed as an indicator of executive function. During the CWST, prefrontal activation was monitored using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). SI-related oxy-Hb changes and SI-related neural efficiency (NE) scores were assessed to examine the underlying neural mechanism of the exercise intervention. Although the mild-exercise intervention significantly decreased SI-related RT, there were no significant effects of exercise intervention on SI-related oxy-Hb changes or SI-related NE scores in prefrontal subregions. Lastly, changes in the effects of mild exercise on NE with advancing age were examined. The 81 participants were divided into two subgroups (younger-aged subgroup [YA], older-aged subgroup [OA], based on median age [68 years.]). Interestingly, SI-related RT significantly decreased, and SI-related NE scores in all ROIs of the prefrontal cortex significantly increased only in the OA subgroup. These results reveal that a long-term intervention of very light-intensity exercise has a positive effect on executive function especially in older adults, possibly by increasing neural efficiency in the prefrontal cortex.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.