Higher cardiorespiratory fitness is positively correlated with performance improvements under post-practice exercise, and baseline performance and symptom severity correlate with overall motor learning¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q2 · i3 large
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i3 In the EXE group, higher cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2peak) correlated positively with performance improvements (rs(10) = .62, p = .037). → Wanner 2025 q2 i3 Performance gains across sessions correlated with first-session performance (rs(22) = .66, p < .001) and negatively with MDS-UPDRS III (rs(22) = -.51, p = .011). → Wanner 2025 (2)

Evidence¶

Wanner 2025¶

Wanner, P., Frisch, N., Rikus, S., Roig, M. & Steib, S. (2025). Cardiovascular exercise enhances motor learning across multiple sessions in people with Parkinson's disease: a randomized controlled pilot trial. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00391-6

q2 · i3 · causal · r2

Exploratory Spearman correlation analysis within the exercise group of the randomized pilot trial. The printed effect size is rs(10) = .62, p = .037; |r| = .62 is a large effect size (|r| ≥ .37). Exploratory; authors state such findings require replication.

"higher cardiorespiratory fitness was positively correlated with performance improvements in the EXE group (rs(10) = .62, p = .037;"

Wanner 2025 (2)¶

Wanner, P., Frisch, N., Rikus, S., Roig, M. & Steib, S. (2025). Cardiovascular exercise enhances motor learning across multiple sessions in people with Parkinson's disease: a randomized controlled pilot trial. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00391-6

q2 · i3 · causal · r2

Exploratory correlational analysis across both groups of the pilot trial. The printed effect sizes are rs(22) = .66, p < .001 and rs(22) = -.51, p = .011; both |r| values (.66 and .51) are large effect sizes (|r| ≥ .37). The authors state these findings require replication.

"performance gains across the six sessions were significantly correlated with performance in the first session (rs(22) = .66, p < .001; Figure 3a) and MDS-UPDRS III (rs(22) = -.51, p = .011; Figure 3b)"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The EXE group showed descriptively higher within-session online learning rates across sessions 2-6, a moderate but non-significant between-group effect (d = 0.53) — related
• The EXE group improved from first to last session more than the REST group (4.1 ± 3.1 sec vs. 2.2 ± 1.7 sec) in the multi-session balance task — related
• Cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) is the physical fitness measure most strongly correlated with cognitive functioning in adolescents — related
• Cardiorespiratory fitness predicts nearly all cognitive and psychosocial measures, with anxiety/insomnia predicted by horizontal jump and life satisfaction by fat mass — related