Exercise improves executive function in our aging brains

[Guest guest]

Exercise improves executive function in our aging brains

A group of collaborators has looked at functional connectivity measured by fMRI

in ~65 year old adults before and after their separation for one year into

exercise (walking, 30 individuals) and non-exercise (35 individuals) groups. In

the exercising group they find increased functional connectivity associated with

greater improvement in executive function, providing evidence for

exercise-induced functional plasticity in large-scale brain systems in older

brains. Here is their whole abstract.

http://www.frontiersin.org/aging_neuroscience/10.3389/fnagi.2010.00032/full

Research has shown the human brain is organized into separable functional

networks during rest and varied states of cognition, and that aging is

associated with specific network dysfunctions. The present study used functional

magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine low-frequency (0.008 to 0.08 Hz)

coherence of cognitively relevant and sensory brain networks in older adults who

participated in a 1-year intervention trial, comparing the effects of aerobic

and non-aerobic fitness training on brain function and cognition. Results showed

that aerobic training improved the aging brain's resting functional efficiency

in higher-level cognitive networks. One year of walking increased functional

connectivity between aspects of the frontal, posterior, and temporal cortices

within the Default Mode Network and a Frontal Executive Network, two brain

networks central to brain dysfunction in aging. Length of training was also an

important factor. Effects in favor of the walking group were observed only after

12 months of training, compared to non-significant trends after 6 months. A

non-aerobic stretching and toning group also showed increased functional

connectivity in the DMN after 6 months and in a Frontal Parietal Network after

12 months, possibly reflecting experience-dependent plasticity. Finally, we

found that changes in functional connectivity were behaviorally relevant.

Increased functional connectivity was associated with greater improvement in

executive function.

Therefore the study provides the first evidence for exercise-induced functional

plasticity in large-scale brain systems in the aging brain, using functional

connectivity techniques, and offers new insight into the role of aerobic fitness

in attenuating age-related brain dysfunction.

================

Carruthers

Wakefield, UK