1. The Effect of Self-Paced Exercise Intensity and Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Frontal Grey Matter Volume in Cognitively Normal Older Adults: A Randomised Controlled Trial
- Author
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Shaun Markovic, Michael Weinborn, Jeremiah J. Peiffer, Stephanie R. Rainey-Smith, Natalie Frost, Ralph N. Martins, Ying Xia, Vincent Dore, Nicole Gordon, Belinda M. Brown, Gilles E. Gignac, Simon M. Laws, and Hamid R. Sohrabi
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,law.invention ,Physical medicine and rehabilitation ,Randomized controlled trial ,law ,medicine ,Humans ,Gray Matter ,Aerobic capacity ,Aged ,Cerebral Cortex ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,Brain ,Cardiorespiratory fitness ,Middle Aged ,Executive functions ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Clinical Psychology ,Frontal lobe ,Cardiorespiratory Fitness ,Brain size ,Exercise intensity ,Female ,Neurology (clinical) ,business ,Neurocognitive - Abstract
Objective:Exercise has been found to be important in maintaining neurocognitive health. However, the effect of exercise intensity level remains relatively underexplored. Thus, to test the hypothesis that self-paced high-intensity exercise and cardiorespiratory fitness (peak aerobic capacity; VO2peak) increase grey matter (GM) volume, we examined the effect of a 6-month exercise intervention on frontal lobe GM regions that support the executive functions in older adults.Methods:Ninety-eight cognitively normal participants (age = 69.06 ± 5.2 years; n = 54 female) were randomised into either a self-paced high- or moderate-intensity cycle-based exercise intervention group, or a no-intervention control group. Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging and fitness assessment pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 12-months post-intervention.Results:The intervention was found to increase fitness in the exercise groups, as compared with the control group (F = 9.88, p = β = 0.29, p = 0.036, r = 0.27), right supplementary motor area (β = 0.30, p = 0.031, r = 0.29), and both right (β = 0.32, p = 0.034, r = 0.30) and left gyrus rectus (β = 0.30, p = 0.037, r = 0.29) for intervention, but not control participants. No differences in volume were observed across groups.Conclusions:At an aggregate level, six months of self-paced high- or moderate-intensity exercise did not increase frontal GM volume. However, experimentally-induced changes in individual cardiorespiratory fitness was positively associated with frontal GM volume in our sample of older adults. These results provide evidence of individual variability in exercise-induced fitness on brain structure.
- Published
- 2021