Exercise, Executive Processes and the Aging Brain

描述（由申请人提供）：这项研究的目的是为了更好地了解与老年人健康和有效功能增加有关的因素。具体来说，随着年龄的增长，精神运动表现的效率会下降，从而对老年人的生活质量产生深远的影响。因此，研究人员一直关注个人生活习惯对衰老过程的影响。一种生活方式的选择已经被发现对老年人精神运动表现的效率有积极的贡献，那就是心血管运动。当老年人面临更复杂或更费力的任务时，这种关系显得尤为重要。这里有两条相关的研究路线。首先，与年龄相关的差异已经通过使用需要由额叶提供执行控制过程的任务被记录下来。这些差异在没有额叶参与的任务中并不一致，这使得研究人员相信，衰老对认知功能的影响是特定的，而不是普遍的。其次，长期参与心血管运动可以维持对健康衰老至关重要的认知功能。因此，本研究的目的是探讨为期6个月的心血管运动干预试验对执行控制过程的皮层电测量（ERPs）和行为测量（RT）的作用。此外，参加6个月拉伸和健美计划的非心血管运动对照组将被用于比较。参与者将在参与运动训练之前和之后进行测量，这些任务旨在激发不同的执行功能（例如，干扰控制、任务转换、抑制）。每个任务还包含一个非执行条件，将用于比较，以检查认知功能的运动参与的特殊性。这个项目的第二个目的是确定剧烈运动对认知功能的影响。两组人都将参加几轮运动，然后立即对上述任务进行测量，以确定急性运动是否对执行控制过程有有益影响。这项研究的意义可能包括增加对与中枢神经系统功能与年龄相关的衰退有关的改善因素的理解，并为在生命的后期维持认知健康提出建议。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This aim of this research is to gain a better understanding of factors that relate to the increased health and effective functioning of older adults. Specifically, efficiency of psychomotor performance declines with advancing age leading to profound effects on older adults' quality of life. For this reason, researchers have focused on the influence that individual lifestyle habits have on the aging process. One lifestyle choice that has been found to positively contribute to the efficiency of older adults' psychomotor performance is cardiovascular exercise. This relationship appears to be especially significant when older adults are challenged with more complex or effortful tasks. Two lines of research are relevant here. First, age-related discrepancies have been documented using tasks that require executive control processes that are subserved by the frontal lobes. These differences are not consistently observed using tasks that are not subserved by the frontal lobes, leading investigators to believe that aging has a specific, rather than generalized, impact on cognitive functioning. Secondly, prolonged participation in cardiovascular exercise has been found to maintain the cognitive functioning critical for healthy aging. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the role of a 6-month cardiovascular exercise intervention trial on electrocortical (ERPs) and behavioral measures (RT) of executive control processes. In addition, a non-cardiovascular exercise control group that participates in a 6-month stretching and toning program will be used for comparison. Participants will be measured before and after exercise training during engagement in several tasks designed to elicit different executive functions (e.g., interference control, task switching, inhibition). Each task also contains a non-executive condition that will be used for comparison to examine the specificity of exercise participation of cognitive functioning. A secondary aim of this project is to determine the effects of an acute bout of exercise on cognitive functioning. Both groups will participate in several bouts of exercise followed by immediate measurement on the tasks outlined above to determine whether acute exercise has beneficial effects on executive control processes. The significance of this research may include the increased understanding of factors related to the amelioration of age-related decrements in central nervous system functioning and recommendations for the maintenance of cognitive health during the later stages of life.