Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (Aug 2015)

Brain activation during dual-task processing is associated with cardiorespiratory fitness and performance in older adults

  • Chelsea N Wong,
  • Chelsea N Wong,
  • Laura eChaddock-Heyman,
  • Michelle W Voss,
  • Agnieszka Z Burzynska,
  • Chandramallika eBasak,
  • Kirk I Erickson,
  • Ruchika Shaurya Prakash,
  • Amanda eSzabo-Reed,
  • Siobhan M Phillips,
  • Thomas eWojcicki,
  • Emily L Mailey,
  • Edward eMcAuley,
  • Arthur F Kramer

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00154
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7

Abstract

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Higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with better cognitive performance and enhanced brain activation. Yet, the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness-related brain activation is associated with better cognitive performance is not well understood. In this cross-sectional study, we examined whether the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and executive function was mediated by greater prefrontal cortex activation in healthy older adults. Brain activation was measured during dual-task performance with functional magnetic resonance imaging in a sample of 128 healthy older adults (59-80 years). Higher cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with greater activation during dual-task processing in several brain areas including the anterior cingulate and supplementary motor cortex (ACC/SMA), thalamus and basal ganglia, right motor/somatosensory cortex and middle frontal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex, controlling for age, sex, education, and gray matter volume. Of these regions, greater ACC/SMA activation mediated the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and dual-task performance. We provide novel evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness may support cognitive performance by facilitating brain activation in a core region critical for executive function.

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