Effects of exercise intervention on aging-related motor decline

描述 摘要：根据2010年美国人口普查，目前美国55岁以上的退伍军人有1400万人。研究表明，运动衰退在这个年龄段内开始加速，甚至超过这个年龄段，运动病理的发生率也是如此。有氧运动目前正在研究其在增加皮质可塑性和改善预后方面的潜力。 运动障碍的康复。令人兴奋的新研究(*表示VA赞助的研究)表明，有氧运动可能会在衰老和疾病方面导致上肢功能的显著改善(McGregor等人，2009*；McGregor等人，2011*；Voelcker-Rehage等人，2010；Ploughman等人，2008)。然而，健身发挥其益处的机制还没有完全被理解。新的研究表明，上肢功能与衰老相关的大脑半球间抑制功能丧失有关(Bernard&Seidler，2011；Fling&Seidler，出版社；McGregor等人，2009)，甚至在中年就开始了。我们的实验室最近表明，这些变化可能不是不可避免的或一成不变的。新的证据表明，通过有氧运动提高身体健康水平可能会减轻大脑半球间抑制的损失，并改善运动能力。这项研究建议让久坐不动的老年退伍军人参加一个由上肢行为训练和定期体力活动组成的计划。我们假设运动表现将与大脑半球间抑制水平有关(通过高级神经成像进行评估)，并且两者都将在我们的运动干预过程中得到改善。我们相信，这项研究对于我们理解正常的运动组织是至关重要的，它是如何随着衰老过程的变化而变化的，这将为我们因神经病理而恢复运动能力的能力提供信息，因为皮质激活模式可能会随着生物年龄的不同而变化。我们的目标是，这项工作最终将应用于运动障碍的康复，这种障碍在中年及以后的发病率会增加。

DESCRIPTION Abstract: There are currently 14 million U.S Veterans over the age of 55 according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Research has indicated that motor declines begin to accelerate within this age group and beyond as does incidence of motor pathology. Aerobic exercise is currently under investigation for its potential in increasing cortical plasticity and offering improved outcome for rehabilitation of motor disorders. Exciting new studies (* denotes VA sponsored research) present the possibility that aerobic exercise may lead to significant improvements in upper extremity function (McGregor et al., 2009*; McGregor et al., 2011*; Voelcker-Rehage et al., 2010; Ploughman et al., 2008) in both aging and disease. However, the mechanisms by which fitness exerts its benefits have yet to be fully understood. New research has shown that upper extremity performance is associated with aging-related losses in interhemispheric inhibition (Bernard & Seidler, 2011; Fling & Seidler, in press; McGregor et al., 2009), which begins even in middle age. Our lab has recently shown that these changes may not be inevitable or immutable. New evidence indicates increased levels of physical fitness through aerobic activity may mitigate losses in interhemispheric inhibition and improve motor performance. This research proposes to enroll sedentary older Veterans into a program consisting of upper extremity behavioral training and regular engagement in physical activity. We hypothesize that motor performance will be linked to levels of interhemispheric inhibition (assessed by advanced neuroimaging) and both will improve over the course of our exercise intervention. We believe this research is critical to our understanding of normal motor organization and how it changes due to aging processes will inform our capability for reclamation of motor capacity due to neural pathology, as cortical activation patterns may vary according to biological age. The goal is that this work will eventually be applied to rehabilitation of motor deficits, which occur with increase incidence within and beyond middle age.