Senile patients with heart disease were evaluated in order to study the correlation between their mental and physical activities in daily life. Mental activity was classified using Hasegawa's dementia scale, and physical activity was measured by the number of steps per day recorded with a passimeter. It was found that;
1) Hasegawa's dementia score was positively related to the number of steps.
2) Hasegawa's dementia score was significantly increased after walking training for 1 year.
Thus it is suggested that appropriate physical exercise is necessary for maintaining or increasing mental activity in aged patients with circulatory disease.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of walking exercise on the mental activity of 44 elderly patients with slight, long-term cerebral infarction. Walking exercise, mental activity and brain morphology were determined by the number of steps taken per day, modified Hasegawa's dementia scales-R and computed tomography, respectively.
The results are as follows : The average number of steps taken per day for the group of normal mental activity was 3489±1692, for subnormal 2073±980, pre-dementia 1458±1241, and dementia 570±1132. Sylvian fissures enlargement ratio in the normal group was 4.3±1.7%, subnormal was 4.1±0.8%, predementia 6.0±2.3%, dementia 6.3±1.8%.
The difference between the right and left sylvian fissure enlargement ratio in the normal group was 1.8±0.9% (right) vs. 2.5±1.3% (left), subnormal: 1.7±0.4% (right) vs. 2.5±0.5% (left), predementia : 2.6±0.9% (right) vs. 3.4±1.5% (left), dementia: 3.0±1.2% (right) vs. 3.2±0.9% (left) . Cerebrum-cranial cavity ratio in the normal group was 80.6±5.0%, subnormal 78.6±5.0%, predementia 74.6±4.8%, dementia 72.7±3.4%.
The lateral ventricles-cranial cavity ratio for normal was 14.3±4.5%, subnormal 14.7±3.1%, predementia 17.3±3.6%, dementia 16.8±4.7%. The difference between good walking patients (over 1000steps/day) and poor walking patients (less than 1000steps/day) concerning the sylvian fissures-cranial cavity ratio (A), cerebrum-cranial cavity ratio (B) and lateral ventricles-cranial cavity ratio (C) was as follows: (A) 4.4±1.5% vs. 6.4±1.9% (p<0.001), (B) 78.4±6.7% vs. 74.0±3.4% (p<0.05), (C) 15.2±3.9% vs. 16.5±4.5% (ns) .
The above data indicates that there is an interrelationship among walking exercise, mental activity and brain morphology.