Research Article Physical Activity Improves Verbal and Spatial Memory in Older Adults with Probable Mild Cognitive Impairment:

Copyright © 2013 Lindsay S. Nagamatsu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. We report secondary findings from a randomized controlled trial on the effects of exercise onmemory in older adults with probable MCI.We randomized 86 women aged 70–80 years with subjectivememory complaints into one of three groups: resistance training, aerobic training, or balance and tone (control). All participants exercised twice per week for six months. We measured verbal memory and learning using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and spatial memory using a computerized test, before and after trial completion. We found that the aerobic training group remembered significantly more items in the loss after interference condition of the RAVLT compared with the control group after six months of training. In addition, both experimental groups showed improved spatial memory performance in the most difficult condition where they were required to memorize the spatial location of three items, compared with the control group. Lastly, we found a significant correlation between spatial memor