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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 16 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1403464
This article is part of the Research Topic Lifestyle and Healthy Aging to Prevent Cognitive Decline and Dementia View all 9 articles

Prolonged moderate to vigorous physical activity may lead to a decline in cognitive performance：a Mendelian randomization study

Provisionally accepted
Yutao Li Yutao Li Chenyi Fu Chenyi Fu Honglin Song Honglin Song Zhenhang Zhang Zhenhang Zhang Tianbiao Liu Tianbiao Liu *
  • College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: This study investigates the causal relationship between moderate to vigorous physical activity and cognitive performance. Methods: Genetic loci strongly related to moderate to vigorous physical activity from genome-wide association studies were used as instrumental variables. These were combined with genetic data on cognitive performance from different Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) to conduct a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis. The primary analysis used inverse variance weighting within a random effects model, supplemented by weighted median estimation, MR-Egger regression and other methods, with results expressed as Beta coefficient.Results: This study selected 19 SNPs closely related to physical activity as instrumental variables. The multiplicative random-effects Inverse-Variance Weighted (IVW) analysis revealed that moderate to vigorous physical activity was negatively associated with cognitive performance (Beta = -0.551; OR = 0.58; 95% CI: 0.46-0.72; P < 0.001). Consistent results were obtained using the fixed effects IVW model (Beta = -0.551; OR = 0.58; 95% CI: 0.52-0.63; P < 0.001), weighted median (Beta = -0.424; OR = 0.65; 95% CI: 0.55-0.78; P < 0.001), simple mode (Beta = -0.467; OR = 0.63; 95% CI: 0.44-0.90; P < 0.001), and weighted mode (Beta = -0.504; OR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.44-0.83; P < 0.001). After adjusting for BMI, smoking, sleep duration, and alcohol intake frequency, the multivariate MR analysis also showed a significant association between genetically predicted MVPA and cognitive performance, with Beta of -0.599 and OR = 0.55 (95% CI: 0.44-0.69; P < 0.001).The findings of this study indicate that genetically predicted moderate to vigorous physical activity may be associated with a decline in cognitive performance.

    Keywords: Moderate to vigorous physical activity, cognitive performance, Mendelian randomization, multivariate MR analysis, epigenetics

    Received: 19 Mar 2024; Accepted: 03 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Fu, Song, Zhang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tianbiao Liu, College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, Beijing Municipality, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.