Twelve adults with moderate to severe acquired brain injuries participated in this outpatient rehabilitation study. They were divided into two groups: one received 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three to four times a week for eight weeks, while the other group received only routine physical therapy.
The researchers measured changes in cognitive function, fatigue, and neuroplasticity. They found that the group doing aerobic exercise showed significant improvement in working memory and executive processing speed compared to the control group. However, there were no significant differences between the groups regarding fatigue levels or measures of neuroplasticity.
Interestingly, the control group receiving only routine therapy actually showed improvement in automatic visual search speed. No safety concerns or adverse events were reported during the study. Since this was a pilot study with a very small number of participants, the findings are considered preliminary. Readers should understand that these early results do not yet change medical practice or prove that aerobic exercise is a proven treatment for brain injury recovery.