Combined effects of physical exercise and education on age-related cortical thinning in cognitively normal individuals

We investigated the association between self-reported physical exercise and cortical thickness in a large sample of cognitively normal individuals. We also determined whether a combination of physical exercise and education had more protective effects on age-related cortical thinning than either parameter alone. A total of 1,842 participants were included in this analysis. Physical exercise was assessed using a questionnaire regarding intensity, frequency and duration. Cortical thickness was measured using a surface-based method. Longer duration of exercise (≥1 hr/day), but not intensity or frequency, was associated with increased mean cortical thickness globally ( P -value = 0.013) and in the frontal regions ( P -value = 0.007). In particular, the association of exercise with cortical thinning had regional specificity in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal, precuneus, left postcentral and inferior parietal regions. The combination of higher exercise level and higher education level showed greater global and frontal mean thickness than either parameter alone. Testing for a trend with the combination of high exercise level and high education level confirmed this finding ( P -value = 0.001–0.003). Our findings suggest that combined exercise and education have important implications for brain health, especially considering the paucity of known protective factors for age-related cortical thinning.