Background:
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease which has been characterized by progressive development of long onset early disease with complicated etiology, and may cause memory loss, cognitive impairment, and behavioral changes. Physical exercise may play a preventive role in AD. In the present study, we investigated the impact of longer-term physical exercise on finger tapping of AD patient by comparing the finger tapping of AD patients and heathy controls without AD.
Methods:
In this study, 140 subjects who aged ≥ 60 years were enrolled. Group A consisted of 70 subjects (27 males and 43 females) without exercise habits who selected from Yangpu District (Shanghai, China). Group B consisted of 70 subjects (27 males and 43 females) who selected from Minxing District (Shanghai, China). All the subjects were right-handed as well. The subjects’ data, including subjects’ age, weight, height, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and finger tapping frequency were measured.
Results:
The subjects were matched in age, weight, and height. The AD subjects’ MoCA and MMSE scores were noticeably lower than healthy subjects’ scores (P<0.001); besides, AD patients with exercise have significantly lower MoCA and MMSE scores than healthy controls with exercise (P<0.001). The finger tapping of AD subjects’ left hands was significantly lower than that of healthy subjects without AD (P<0.01), and AD subjects with exercise tapped significantly slower with left hand than healthy subjects with exercise (P<0.01). Meanwhile, AD subjects with exercise tapped significantly faster with left hand than AD subjects (P<0.05). The right hands of AD subjects tapped remarkably less than healthy subjects (P<0.01) with or without exercise. Meanwhile, subjects with exercise tapped significantly faster with right hand than healthy subjects (P<0.05), and AD subjects with exercise tapped significantly faster with right hand than AD subjects (P<0.05).
Conclusion:
Long-term physical exercises can improve finger tapping frequency, especially patients with AD. Finger tapping frequency may be used as an index to monitor cognitive decline in ageing AD patients.