Communications Biology (Mar 2024)

Hippocampal subfield plasticity is associated with improved spatial memory

  • Henning Boecker,
  • Marcel Daamen,
  • Lukas Kunz,
  • Melanie Geiß,
  • Moritz Müller,
  • Thomas Neuss,
  • Leonie Henschel,
  • Rüdiger Stirnberg,
  • Neeraj Upadhyay,
  • Lukas Scheef,
  • Jason A. Martin,
  • Tony Stöcker,
  • Alexander Radbruch,
  • Ulrike Attenberger,
  • Nikolai Axmacher,
  • Angelika Maurer

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-05949-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Abstract Physical exercise studies are generally underrepresented in young adulthood. Seventeen subjects were randomized into an intervention group (24.2 ± 3.9 years; 3 trainings/week) and 10 subjects into a passive control group (23.7 ± 4.2 years), over a duration of 6 months. Every two months, performance diagnostics, computerized spatial memory tests, and 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging were conducted. Here we find that the intervention group, compared to controls, showed increased cardiorespiratory fitness, spatial memory performance and subregional hippocampal volumes over time. Time-by-condition interactions occurred in right cornu ammonis 4 body and (trend only) dentate gyrus, left hippocampal tail and left subiculum. Increases in spatial memory performance correlated with hippocampal body volume changes and, subregionally, with left subicular volume changes. In conclusion, findings support earlier reports of exercise-induced subregional hippocampal volume changes. Such exercise-related plasticity may not only be of interest for young adults with clinical disorders of hippocampal function, but also for sedentary normal cohorts.