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A study using Fitbit step records and cognitive tests from 3,093 U.S. adults found that higher daily activity was associated with better performance on three tests of attention, cognitive control and decision-making. The observational findings were small and do not show that walking improves cognition or prevents decline.
Adults with higher recorded daily step counts scored better on three of four cognitive tests in a study of 3,093 participants in the U.S. All of Us Research Program. Published in Scientific Reports, the analysis found associations between activity and tests of sustained attention, cognitive control and decisions involving immediate or delayed rewards, but it cannot establish that walking caused better scores.
Researchers used Fitbit records to estimate participants’ physical activity and examined blood pressure data spanning 2009 to 2023. Participants completed four cognitive tests once, from September 2023 onward: the Flanker task, the Gradual Onset Continuous Performance Task (Grad-CPT), the Delay Discounting Task (DD-Task) and a facial emotion recognition task. The tests measured different aspects of attention, cognitive control, decision-making and emotion recognition.
The researchers grouped participants by their step-count patterns. The three groups averaged 5,108, 8,875 and 14,161 steps per day. Participants in the two higher-step groups scored better than those in the lowest-step group on the Grad-CPT, Flanker and DD tasks. The highest-step group had the highest Grad-CPT and DD-task scores; the middle group had the highest Flanker scores.
In adjusted analyses, each estimated 1,000 additional daily steps was associated with scores 0.31 points higher on the Grad-CPT and 0.26 points higher on the Flanker task. Higher activity was also associated with better DD-task performance. The source report describes the effects as small. The findings did not show a significant link between blood pressure and performance on the emotional recognition, Flanker or Grad-CPT tests.
What Step Counts Reveal About Cognition
The results add evidence from device-recorded activity to research on how movement and vascular health relate to cognitive performance. Unlike studies relying only on participants’ recollections of exercise, this analysis used Fitbit step records collected across multiple years. That approach may help researchers examine patterns of everyday movement alongside standardized cognitive tasks.
Still, the observed associations do not show that taking more steps will raise a person’s test scores. The effects were small, and the cognitive tests were administered only once, so the study could not track whether individuals’ scores improved or declined as their activity changed. It also does not establish that step-count targets prevent cognitive impairment or dementia.
The distinction matters for readers considering health implications: the findings are a population-level association, not an individual prediction or a treatment result. The study supports further investigation into activity and cognition but does not demonstrate a specific cognitive benefit from walking more.
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How Activity and Blood Pressure Were Measured
The analysis included adults aged 18 to 93, with a mean age of 58. Most were 60 or older, White, female and born in the United States; most also reported some college education or higher. The researchers accounted for age, education, marital status, income and country of origin in their analyses. Those characteristics describe the study sample and may limit how well its results apply to other populations.
The team examined both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Higher SBP was associated with poorer performance on the DD task, while DBP was not significantly associated with any of the four tests. The analysis also found that higher activity was associated with lower SBP. In a statistical mediation analysis, SBP accounted for an estimated 4.8% of the activity–DD-task association; the activity association remained after accounting for SBP.
That mediation result describes a statistical relationship, not proof that blood pressure changes explain a biological pathway. The researchers also found that changes in activity and blood pressure over time were not significantly associated with cognitive performance. The study’s central findings concern estimated activity levels and test scores, rather than demonstrated cognitive changes over time.
“The observed effect sizes were small.”
— The study authors, as summarized by News-Medical
What the One-Time Tests Cannot Show
The study cannot determine whether greater activity led to better cognitive performance, whether people with stronger performance were more active, or whether other factors contributed to both. Although activity and blood pressure records covered years, cognition was measured once, preventing researchers from assessing cognitive change over time.
The source report does not provide enough detail to establish whether the associations apply to people outside the study sample, including groups less represented among participants. It also does not show that reducing SBP improves cognition: the estimated 4.8% mediation was statistical, and the authors said the observational data cannot establish a causal effect. The reasons for differences between these findings and earlier blood-pressure research remain uncertain.
Further Research on Long-Term Change
The study report does not identify a scheduled follow-up or next research milestone. Further work would need repeated cognitive assessments alongside activity and blood-pressure measurements to test whether changes in movement track with changes in cognition. Researchers would also need designs capable of distinguishing association from cause before drawing conclusions about whether increasing activity or lowering blood pressure affects brain-test performance.
For now, the reported findings are limited to associations in this participant group. The authors’ stated caveats leave open whether the same patterns would appear in a more representative population, over longer periods, or when cognition is measured repeatedly.
Key Questions
Did the study prove that walking more improves brain function?
No. It found an association between higher recorded activity and better scores on three tests. The observational design and one-time cognitive testing cannot establish that walking caused the differences.
Which cognitive tests were linked to higher step counts?
Higher activity was associated with better scores on the Grad-CPT, Flanker and Delay Discounting tasks. The study did not report a significant association between activity and the facial emotion recognition test in the key findings provided.
How many steps did the study’s activity groups average?
The three groups averaged 5,108, 8,875 and 14,161 steps per day. These are group averages from this study, not recommended daily targets.
Did blood pressure explain the activity and test-score association?
Higher systolic blood pressure was associated with poorer Delay Discounting Task performance. In a statistical analysis, SBP accounted for an estimated 4.8% of the activity–performance association, but that does not prove that lowering blood pressure improves cognition.
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