Context: the role of endurance physical activity of moderate and high intensity in cognitive functions of PD (Hoehn and Yahr: I-III) patients.

Objective: determine the typologies of aerobic physical activity effective in enhancing and/or slowing down the decline of one or more of the cognitive domains. Another objective is to assess whether a specific modality of aerobic exercise is more effective.

Data sources: PubMed, Cochrane Library and PEDro. Additional search by screening the references of the articles selected. Search terms included “Parkinson’s disease”, “aerobic exercise”, “cognition”, “cognitive”, “endurance”, “treadmill”, “BDNF” and “hippocampus”, connected with the Boolean term “AND”.

Study selection: those examining the relationship between aerobic physical activity, alone or having a relevant major role in conjunction with other modalities, and the cognitive aspects of Parkinson’s disease. The search was limited to years 2008 to 2014.

Data extraction: the data extracted by the author of this thesis were method of research, types of implementation, assessments, results and possible bias.

Results: seven articles were included.

Limitations: restricted amount of time to present this thesis and the possibility to access only to those articles free or requiring a minimum charge (<10 euros). Search strategy was also limited to only some databases.

Conclusions: a regime of aerobic physical activity in PD patients (H&Y 1-3) enhances and/or slows down the decline of one or more cognitive domains. However, not all of the studies taken into consideration reported the specific type of exercises or their intensity. Future studies should report more accurately these details and include at least one assessment test for each of the subcategories of cognition to determine whether one aerobic activity can be objectively considered more efficacious. A more detailed description of the activities implemented would also improve the accessibility of these results.