Combining physical exercise and cognitive training in old age

INTERVENTION: Participants were randomized to one of four intervention groups. All interventions lasted for 12 weeks and involved training visits every second weekday. Participants were randomized to receive either: 1. Physical exercise immediately before cognitive training (PE+COG) 2. Physical exercise immediately after cognitive training (PE+COG) 3. Physical exercise only (PE) 4. Cognitive training only (COG) in each training session. The physical exercise sessions consisted of 35 minutes of aerobic exercise at a heart rate corresponding to 65‐75% of each participant's individual VO2‐max. The cognitive training sessions consisted of 35 minutes of adaptive working memory training. Randomization was performed in R and three stratifiers were used: age, reasoning ability (score on Ravens Progressive Matrices at pretest) and physical activity level (score on physical activity questionnaire at pretest). CONDITION: Healthy cognitive aging ; Not Applicable PRIMARY OUTCOME: Primary outcome variables were eight cognitive composite scores, each composed of two/three individual tests administered at pretest and posttest (12 weeks), which varied systematically in similarity to the tasks in the working memory training, and gradual working memory improvement across the cognitive training period SECONDARY OUTCOME: ; 1. Physical fitness, assessed in a maximum ergometer test at pretest and posttest; 2. Acute changes in peripheral BDNF concentrations in response to the allocated intervention, assessed at pretest; INCLUSION CRITERIA: 1. Age 65‐75 years at the start of the study 2. Ability to attend all study visits 3. Ability to maintain current level of physical activity, in addition to any study intervention, during the whole study period 4. Adequate hearing and normal or corrected eye sight 5. Fluency in the Swedish language