Prakash Ruchika Shaurya, Voss Michelle W, Erickson Kirk I, Lewis Jason M, Chaddock Laura, Malkowski Edward, Alves Heloisa, Kim Jennifer, Szabo Amanda, White Siobhan M, Wójcicki Thomas R, Klamm Emily L, McAuley Edward, Kramer Arthur F
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2011 Jan 14;4:229. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2010.00229. eCollection 2011.
A growing body of literature provides evidence for the prophylactic influence of cardiorespiratory fitness on cognitive decline in older adults. This study examined the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and recruitment of the neural circuits involved in an attentional control task in a group of healthy older adults. Employing a version of the Stroop task, we examined whether higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with an increase in activation in cortical regions responsible for imposing attentional control along with an up-regulation of activity in sensory brain regions that process task-relevant representations. Higher fitness levels were associated with better behavioral performance and an increase in the recruitment of prefrontal and parietal cortices in the most challenging condition, thus providing evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with an increase in the recruitment of the anterior processing regions. There was a top-down modulation of extrastriate visual areas that process both task-relevant and task-irrelevant attributes relative to the baseline. However, fitness was not associated with differential activation in the posterior processing regions, suggesting that fitness enhances attentional function by primarily influencing the neural circuitry of anterior cortical regions. This study provides novel evidence of a differential association of fitness with anterior and posterior brain regions, shedding further light onto the neural changes accompanying cardiorespiratory fitness.
越来越多的文献为心肺适能对老年人认知衰退的预防作用提供了证据。本研究调查了一组健康老年人的心肺适能与参与注意力控制任务的神经回路募集之间的关联。采用一种版本的斯特鲁普任务，我们研究了更高水平的心肺适能是否与负责施加注意力控制的皮层区域激活增加以及处理与任务相关表征的感觉脑区活动上调有关。在最具挑战性的条件下，更高的适能水平与更好的行为表现以及前额叶和顶叶皮层募集增加有关，从而提供了心肺适能与前处理区域募集增加相关的证据。相对于基线，处理与任务相关和与任务无关属性的纹外视觉区域存在自上而下的调制。然而，适能与后处理区域的差异激活无关，这表明适能主要通过影响前皮层区域的神经回路来增强注意力功能。本研究提供了适能与大脑前、后区域差异关联的新证据，进一步揭示了伴随心肺适能的神经变化。
