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. 2019 Apr 22:11:1179573519843493.
doi: 10.1177/1179573519843493. eCollection 2019.

The Effects of High-Intensity Aerobic Exercise on Cognitive Performance After Stroke: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

Hanne Pallesen  1 , Maria Bjerk  2 , Asger Roer Pedersen  1 , Jørgen Feldbæk Nielsen  1 , Lars Evald  1
Affiliations

The Effects of High-Intensity Aerobic Exercise on Cognitive Performance After Stroke: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

Hanne Pallesen et al. J Cent Nerv Syst Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Aerobic exercise is an effective treatment to improve aerobic capacity following stroke and might also improve cognitive impairments in sub-acute stroke survivors. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of high-intensity aerobic exercise on cognitive impairments in sub-acute stroke survivors.

Methods: A pilot, randomised controlled trial on the effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive impairments of stroke patients in the sub-acute (1-3 months) phase was conducted. Thirty patients with moderate cognitive impairments (maximum score of 5 on at least two items on the cognitive subscales of the Functional Independence Measure [FIM]) were included in the study and randomly assigned to either the intervention group - performing high-intensity aerobic exercise (above 70% of maximum heart rate), or the control group - performing low-intensity aerobic exercise (below 60%). Patients in both groups exercised for 50 min twice a week for 4 weeks. Primary neuropsychological outcome: Trail Making Test B.

Results: Thirty stroke patients completed the interventions. The results showed that the high-intensity group, compared with the low-intensity group, achieved significant improvements on Trail Making Test B, which assesses processing speed and divided attention (P = .04 after training and P = .01 at follow-up). However, the significant improvements on Trail Making Test B might relate to a ceiling effect in the control group.

Conclusions: This study does not provide evidence to support that aerobic exercise can improve cognition in stroke survivors, even though significant improvement was revealed on the primary outcome in sub-acute stroke survivors following high-intensity aerobic exercise compared with low-intensity general exercise.

Keywords: Sub-acute stroke survivors; high-intensity training; moderate cognitive impairments; neuropsychological assessments.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests:The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow of patients through the trial.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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