LAUSR

Research Objectives To investigate effects of aerobic exercise training in persons with TBI-related memory impairment. Design Single-blinded randomized controlled trial. Setting Kessler Foundation. Participants Five participants completed the trial. All were right handed, suffered a severe TBI at least 10 years ago, were physically inactive, and were prescreened for significant memory impairment. Interventions Participants were randomly assigned to either 12-weeks of supervised moderate intensity (60% peak watts) aerobic cycling exercise training or 12-weeks of supervised stretching-and-toning as an active control condition. Both conditions took place 3x/week for 30 mins/session. Main Outcome Measures Pre- and post-intervention measures included a battery of neuropsychological assessments of memory and processing speed and structural neuroimaging (MRI), administered by treatment-blinded assessors. Results Based on effect size estimates, the exercise group demonstrated substantially greater improvements in auditory verbal learning (RAVLT) (d=1.54), and larger increases in volumes of the left hippocampus (d=1.49), left cerebellar cortex (d=0.95), and right cerebellar cortex (d=1.40). There were large intervention effects favoring the exercise condition on processing speed (SDMT) (d=1.58) and volume of the right thalamus (d=1.44). Conclusions Pilot data provide important proof-of-concept suggesting that a 12-week, moderate intensity, aerobic cycling exercise training program may specifically improve memory and more generally improve processing speed in those with TBI and impaired memory. Author(s) Disclosures The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.