Influence of Fitness on Brain and Cognition

这项建议考察了有氧健身训练对人类认知、大脑结构和大脑的影响。 老年人的功能。我们的研究是由健身训练对人类的鼓舞作用推动的 认知(Cotcombe&Kramer，2003)和最近的人脑结构和功能(Colcombe et 等，2003年，在印刷中)。这样的影响非常有趣，因为它们告诉我们关于认知的本质 和大脑老化，以及它们对公共健康的影响。我们研究的主要具体目标包括： )来检验老年人有氧健身能力的改善将导致改善的假设 )在各种认知过程中的表现，更具体地说，那些得到支持的过程， 在很大程度上，是通过大脑的额叶区域。 2)检验以下假设：增强有氧运动对认知过程的改善 适应性将得到基础神经回路变化的支持，这是从fMRI的模式推断出来的 在3特斯拉扫描仪中获得激活。我们假设fMRI激活模式的变化 有氧健身的改善所产生的结果将接近年轻人表现出的激活模式 成年人。 3)检验这样一种假设，即在一年的干预过程中，有氧健身的改善将 导致人脑区域(即，主要是额叶， 内侧颞叶和顶叶)，先前已证实在横断面上表现为节段性 学习。 4)检验假设胰岛素样生长因子I(IGF1)水平升高和 有氧运动改善所产生的炎症标记物(即C-反应蛋白和白介素6) 健身将缓和在认知、大脑功能和结构方面观察到的健身益处。

This proposal examines the effect of aerobic fitness training on human cognition, brain structure, and brain function of older adults. Our study is prompted by the encouraging effects of fitness training on human cognition (Cotcombe & Kramer, 2003) and more recently human brain structure and function (Colcombe et al., 2003, in press). Such effects are of great interest both for what they tell us about the nature of cognitive and brain aging and also for their public health implications. The main specific aims of our studies include: ) To test the hypothesis that improvements in aerobic fitness of older adults will lead to improved )erformance on a variety of cognitive processes, and more specifically those processes that are supported, n large part, by frontal regions of the brain. 2) To test the hypothesis that the improvements in cognitive processes engendered by enhanced aerobic fitness will be supported by changes in underlying neural circuits, as inferred from patterns of fMRI activation obtained in a 3 tesla scanner. We hypothesize that the changes in the patterns of fMRI activation that result from improvements in aerobic fitness will approach those activation patterns exhibited by young adults. 3) To test the hypothesis that improvements in aerobic fitness, over the course of a 1 year intervention, will result in increases in gray and white matter volume in regions of the human brain (i.e. primarily frontal, medial temporal and parietal) that have previously been demonstrated to show sparing in cross-sectional studies. 4) To test the hypothesis that increased levels of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF1) and decreases in markers of inflammation (i.e. C-reactive protein & interleukin-6)engendered by improvements in aerobic fitness will moderate the fitness benefits observed on measures of cognition, brain function and structure.