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Long-term high-effort endurance exercise in older adults: diminishing returns for cognitive and brain aging

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posted on 2023-06-09, 00:50 authored by Jeremy C Young, Nicholas DowellNicholas Dowell, Peter W Watt, Naji TabetNaji Tabet, Jennifer Rusted
While there is evidence that age-related changes in cognitive performance and brain structure can be offset by increased exercise, little is known about the impact on these of long-term high-effort endurance exercise. In a cross-sectional design with 12-month follow-up, we recruited older adults engaging in high-effort endurance exercise over at least twenty years, and compared their cognitive performance and brain structure with a non-sedentary control group similar in age, sex, education, IQ, and lifestyle factors. Our findings showed no differences on measures of speed of processing, executive function, incidental memory, episodic memory, working memory, or visual search for older adults participating in long-term high-effort endurance exercise, when compared without confounds to non-sedentary peers. On tasks that engaged significant attentional control, subtle differences emerged. On indices of brain structure, long-term exercisers displayed higher white matter axial diffusivity than their age-matched peers, but this did not correlate with indices of cognitive performance.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity

ISSN

1063-8652

Publisher

Human Kinetics

Issue

4

Volume

24

Page range

659-675

Department affiliated with

  • BSMS Neuroscience Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-04-14

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-09-27

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-04-13

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