Regenerating the Adult Human Brain Through Exercise

Neurogenesis studies in healthy and dementia patients have only been performed on postmortem tissue, which prevents investigation of treatment outcomes. Patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) typically do not respond to medications and uniquely among related dementia disorders undergo corrective surgical treatment, providing a unique opportunity to study the value of regenerative interventions on hippocampal electrophysiology and neurogenesis. Using this unique approach, this study will investigate the neurogenesis and cognitive improvement in epilepsy patients.

Ten people with MTLE who are recommended for surgical treatment as part of their standard care will be enrolled and randomly assigned to High Impact (n=5) and Low Impact (n=5) exercise groups. The duration of exercise programs will be 12 weeks and study arms will undergo the same protocol except for the target heart rate which will be higher in the High-Impact group. Exercise will be performed at home using a recliner bike under the supervision of caregiver and study personnel. Participants will undergo cognitive, exercise and clinical assessment at baseline and after completing the three-month exercise therapy; then surgically resected tissue will be analyzed for regeneration and epileptiform activity. The investigators will assess whether exercise would yield clinical benefits in terms of seizure frequency/intensity or cognitive ability, and whether the ability of the adult human brain to self-repair can be enhanced. It is hypothesized that the proposed exercise regimen is feasible and will improve the neurogenesis levels and cognition.