Dual cognitive and motor training improves cognitive function in aging rats
The combined regimen lowered TMAO accumulation and suppressed inflammatory signaling more effectively than cognitive training alone.
In 18-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats with D-galactose-induced aging, researchers tested whether combining cognitive and motor training outperforms cognitive training alone. The team divided thirty rats into five groups, using novel object recognition and Morris water maze tests to evaluate cognitive function. They also examined hippocampal tissue and cultured HT22 cells to trace inflammatory pathways. Cognitive training alone alleviated cognitive deficits and reduced hippocampal TXNIP and NLRP3 expression. However, cognitive-motor dual-task training produced greater cognitive gains while also curbing TMAO accumulation and TXNIP overexpression. Cell experiments confirmed that TMAO worsened senescence and inflammation through the TXNIP-NLRP3 cascade, while inhibiting TXNIP reversed this damage. TMAO also increased NLRP3 binding to ASC. Overall, the dual-task regimen showed superior protective efficacy against age-related cognitive decline.
Why it matters
The findings highlight how combining physical and mental exercises may protect the aging brain by simultaneously targeting systemic metabolites and downstream neuroinflammatory cascades.
Caveats
The study relied on a small sample of thirty male rodents subjected to chemically accelerated aging, meaning these findings cannot yet be generalized to naturally aging humans.
- Cognitive training
- Cognitive-motor dual task training
- D-galactose
- Trimethylamine n-oxide
- Cellular senescence
- Chronic inflammation
- NLRP3 inflammasome
- Nlrp3
- Pycard
- Txnip
- Cognitive impairment
- Mus musculus
The paper
Cognitive-Motor Dual Task Training Synergistically Improves Aging-related Cognitive Dysfunction By Reducing TMAO and Suppressing TXNIP/NLRP3 Pathway
Zhang R, Dai T, Zhu Z et al.
Molecular Neurobiology · 28 Sep 2026