Aerobic Exercise and Cognitive Training in Older Adults

描述 这个建议，“老年人的有氧运动和认知训练”，是重新提交的职业发展奖-2级与博士乔R。Nocera作为主要研究者和布鲁斯克罗森博士、罗恩肖尔博士、马可帕霍尔博士和迈克尔马西斯克博士的指导团队。Nocera博士获得本科学位（学士学位，2001）来自洛杉矶的加州大学。他在拉斯维加斯的内华达州大学完成了运动学研究生学位（硕士，2004年）和格鲁吉亚大学（博士，2007年）。在完成他的终端学位后，Nocera博士获得了佛罗里达大学神经病学系国家卫生研究所T32培训补助金下的博士后研究金。Nocera博士随后接受了CDA-1，旨在研究有氧运动对老年人执行语言功能的影响。在CDA-1的初步研究中，人们假设并证明了有氧运动对认知的强大记录益处可以延续到更具体的执行语言功能。同时，CDA-1旨在增加Nocera博士对认知神经科学的理解，从而弥合认知功能与Nocera博士先前对老年人身体功能的教育重点之间的差距。该CDA-2应用程序中职业发展的一般目的是进一步和更实质性地发展Nocera博士对认知神经科学的理解，以设计旨在改善老年退伍军人功能和生活质量的干预措施。建议中的具体培训内容包括：认知神经科学技能，认知老化，测量，神经解剖学和基本成像方法的具体培训。此外，该提案旨在培养Nocera博士在高质量临床试验研究所需的临床/转化研究方面的技能。的目的 CDA-2研究将在CDA-1的基础上，通过增加有氧运动后立即进行的认知训练部分，证实有氧运动可改善认知功能。有氧运动可以增强认知训练的普适性。重要的是，这项研究将集中在老年退伍军人在流动性残疾的风险。这一领域对退伍军人管理系统特别重要，因为很大一部分退伍军人正在进入老年，因此可能患有与年龄相关的认知能力下降和行动不便。为了解决我们的研究问题，60名老年退伍军人（年龄65-89岁）将被随机分配到两个为期12周的干预组之一：1）单独的认知训练（CT）或2）有氧运动+认知训练（AE+CT）。这项研究的有氧运动臂将遵循与先前研究以及我们的CDA-1试点工作中显示的老年人广泛执行功能相同的格式。认知训练手臂将包括一个流行的商业可用的大脑健身计划，已证明具体的认知改善和高坚持性。最终，这项研究将大大推进认知障碍治疗的发展，因为这些目标探索了一种可能从认知和身体角度对患者生活质量产生普遍影响的干预措施。同时，该提案将为Nocera博士提供成长为一个成功的独立VA研究所必需的技能。

DESCRIPTION This proposal, "Aerobic Exercise and Cognitive Training in Older Adults", is resubmission for a Career Development Award- Level 2 with Dr. Joe R. Nocera as the Principal Investigator and a mentoring team of Drs. Bruce Crosson, Ron Shorr, Marco Pahor and Michael Marsiske. Dr. Nocera received his undergraduate degree (B.A., 2001) from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed his graduate degrees in Kinesiology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (M.S., 2004) and the University of Georgia (Ph.D., 2007). Following completion of his terminal degree, Dr. Nocera earned a post- doctoral fellowship under a National Institute of Health T32 training grant within the Department of Neurology at the University of Florida. Dr. Nocera then received a CDA-1 aimed at studying the effects aerobic exercise on executive language function in older adults. It was hypothesized, and demonstrated in the preliminary CDA-1 work, that the robust documented benefits of aerobic exercise on cognition could carry over to more specific executive language functions. Concurrently, the CDA-1 was designed to increase Dr. Nocera's understands of cognitive neuroscience thus bridges the gap between cognitive functions and Dr. Nocera's previous education emphasis of physical function in older adults. The general purpose of the career development in this CDA-2 application is to further and more substantially develop Dr. Nocera's understanding of cognitive neuroscience for the purpose of designing interventions aimed at improving function and quality of life in older veterans. Specific training components in the proposal include; skills in cognitive neuroscience with specific training in cognitive aging, measurement, neuroanatomy, and basic imaging approaches. Additionally, the proposal is designed to develop Dr. Nocera's skills in clinical/translational research necessary for high-quality clinical trials research. The purpose of the CDA-2 study will build on the CDA-1, which demonstrating an improvement in cognitive function via aerobic exercise, by adding a cognitive training component that will be done immediately following the aerobic exercise. It is hypothesized that the aerobic exercise will potentiate and increase the generalizability of the cognitive training. Importantly, this study wil focus on older veterans at-risk for mobility disability. This area is of particular importance for he VA system, considering a large percentage of veterans are entering old age and therefore likely to suffer from age-related cognitive decline and mobility disability. To address our research question 60 older veterans (age 65-89) will be randomized to one of two 12-week intervention groups: 1) Cognitive Training alone (CT) or 2) Aerobic Exercise + Cognitive Training (AE+CT). The aerobic exercise arm of the study will follow the same format shown to improve a broad range of executive functions in older adults in previous research as well as our CDA-1 pilot work. The cognitive training arm will consists of a popular commercially-available brain fitness program that has demonstrated specific cognitive improvements and high adherence. Ultimately, this investigation will substantially advance the development of treatments for cognitive impairment because these goals explore an intervention that may potentially have pervasive effects on patient quality of life from a cognitive as well as a physical standpoint. Concurrently, this proposal will provide Dr. Nocera with the skill necessary to grow into a successful, independent VA Research.