JYoung_final-2.pdf (1.14 MB)
Long-term high-effort endurance exercise in older adults: diminishing returns for cognitive and brain aging
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 00:50 authored by Jeremy C Young, Nicholas DowellNicholas Dowell, Peter W Watt, Naji TabetNaji Tabet, Jennifer RustedWhile there is evidence that age-related changes in cognitive performance and brain structure can be offset by increased exercise, little is known about the impact on these of long-term high-effort endurance exercise. In a cross-sectional design with 12-month follow-up, we recruited older adults engaging in high-effort endurance exercise over at least twenty years, and compared their cognitive performance and brain structure with a non-sedentary control group similar in age, sex, education, IQ, and lifestyle factors. Our findings showed no differences on measures of speed of processing, executive function, incidental memory, episodic memory, working memory, or visual search for older adults participating in long-term high-effort endurance exercise, when compared without confounds to non-sedentary peers. On tasks that engaged significant attentional control, subtle differences emerged. On indices of brain structure, long-term exercisers displayed higher white matter axial diffusivity than their age-matched peers, but this did not correlate with indices of cognitive performance.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Journal of Aging and Physical ActivityISSN
1063-8652Publisher
Human KineticsExternal DOI
Issue
4Volume
24Page range
659-675Department affiliated with
- BSMS Neuroscience Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes