TOPLINE:

A new study showed that single-bout exercise offered no cognitive benefits in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) or healthy control individuals. However, higher fitness levels and increased long-term movement activity were associated with enhanced cognitive control in patients with SSD.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers in Germany conducted a randomised, counterbalanced study including 25 patients with SSD and 24 age- and biological sex-matched healthy control individuals.
• Participants first completed an incremental exercise test to establish their individual anaerobic threshold work rate (W-AT); at least 24 hours later, they underwent two sessions: a 15-minute bout of cycle ergometry at 80% of the W-AT and a duration-matched seated rest control session, during which social interactions and cognitive distractions were minimised.
• Participants underwent cognitive function assessment through oculomotor tasks including saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM), measured pre- and post-exercise.
• Secondary analyses assessed correlations between oculomotor performance and physical fitness, 4-week movement and sport activity, and clinical symptom expression.

TAKEAWAY:

• Compared with control individuals, patients with SSD showed a reduction in prosaccade gain (P < .001) and an increase in antisaccade errors (P < .001). However, no "condition × time × group" interactions were observed, indicating no benefit of single-bout exercise on saccade control.
• In SPEM, control individuals outperformed patients with SSD in terms of maintenance gain (P = .014) and step-ramp gain (P = .002). Single-bout exercise did not improve any SPEM metric, and patients' maintenance gain worsened during exercise.
• Higher physical fitness levels and more extensive long-term movement activity were associated with better cognitive control (lower antisaccade error rates) in the patient group.
• Higher levels of disorganisation were associated with poorer SPEM performance among patients.

IN PRACTICE:

"The main findings of this study indicate that individual fitness levels and long-term movement activity, rather than single-bout exercise, are associated with improved cognitive function, as demonstrated by their associations with lower rates of inhibition errors in patients. Importantly, our results support the relevance of physical fitness and movement activity for patients with SSD and add up to the literature linking long-term exercise interventions with improved daily functioning and cognitive control in patients," the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Philipp Mench and T. Koppius, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. It was published online on September 6 in European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.

LIMITATIONS:

Small sample sizes in both patient and control groups limited the generalisability of the results. This study had a single-session design and used self-reported measures of physical activity, which were subject to recall bias and social desirability effects. The age distribution of the participants was heterogeneous, which may have mitigated effects of exercise on cognitive functions. The mean age of patients was greater than that of control individuals. This study could not establish direct causal inferences. The patient group received antipsychotic medication, which may have influenced eye movement performance.

DISCLOSURES:

This study did not receive any funding. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.