Enhancing Child Cognitive and Brain Health through Physical Activity Training

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是了解影响儿童认知和大脑健康的生活方式因素，同时减少当今年轻人久坐不动的本质。我们的研究小组和其他人之前进行的研究发现，体育活动干预可以增强儿童、老年人和神经退行性疾病（如帕金森病和多发性硬化症）患者的认知和大脑结构和功能的各个方面。更具体地说，在我们对儿童的研究中，我们发现适应程度高的儿童拥有更大的海马体，而海马体反过来又与适应程度低的儿童有更好的关系记忆有关。我们还观察到，高健康的儿童表现出更有效的执行控制，这是由表现测量和事件相关的脑电位所表明的。虽然很有趣，但这些横断面数据并不能使我们建立身体活动和认知之间的因果关系。在当前的提案中，我们通过检查9个月随机对照课后体育活动计划对认知和大脑健康的影响，大大扩展了先前的研究。认知能力将通过一系列任务和标准化成就测试进行评估，在9个月的干预之前和之后，活动组和候补名单控制（谁将在第二年接受干预）。孩子们会

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term objective of this project is to develop an understanding of lifestyle factors that influence the cognitive and brain health of children while also reducing the sedentary nature of today's youth. Previous research conducted by our research team and others has found that physical activity interventions can enhance both a variety of aspects of cognition and brain structure and function of children, older adults, and individuals with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. More specifically, in our research with children we have found that higher fit children possess larger hippocampi which in turn are related to better relational memory than their lower fit counterparts. We have also observed that higher fit children exhibit more efficient executive control as indicated by performance measures and event-related brain potentials. While intriguing, these cross-sectional data do not enable us to establish causality between physical activity and cognition. In the current proposal we substantially extend this previous research by examining the influence of a 9 month randomized controlled afterschool physical activity program on cognition and brain health. Cognition will be assessed with a battery of tasks and standardized achievement tests both before and after the 9 month intervention in the activity group and a wait list control (who will receive the intervention the following year). Children will also participate in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sessions both before and after the intervention (and at comparable times for the wait list control). In these sessions we will measure both structural aspects of the brain including regional volumes of gray matter and the integrity of the white matter tracts (through diffusion tensor imaging) and functional aspects of brain function using fMRI activity recorded as the children perform a series of executive control and memory tasks. We anticipate, based on our cross-sectional studies with children and our previous longitudinal studies with older adults, that the children in the physical activity program will show both larger regional brain volumes, particularly in brain regions that subserve executive control and relational memory, and more efficient brain function, as indexed by task-related and resting state fMRI. Furthermore, we anticipate that these changes will be accompanied by improvements in memory and executive control processes. Given recent trends identifying decreased levels of physical activity and health status in preadolescents, the understanding of the potential benefits of physical activity on cognition is of great interest. It s imperative that factors positively influencing cognitive function of children be examined to maximize health and effective functioning of individuals as they progress through the lifespan.