The Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Neurobiol Aging. 2012 Aug;33(8):1690-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.05.010. Epub 2011 Jul 7.
Maintaining functional plasticity of the cortex is essential for healthy aging and aerobic exercise may be an effective behavioral intervention to promote functional plasticity among seniors. Whether resistance training has similar benefits on functional plasticity in seniors has received little investigation. Here we show that 12 months of twice-weekly resistance training led to functional changes in 2 regions of cortex previously associated with response inhibition processes-the anterior portion of the left middle temporal gyrus and the left anterior insula extending into lateral orbital frontal cortex-in community-dwelling senior women. These hemodynamic effects co-occurred with improved task performance. Our data suggest that resistance training improved flanker task performance in 2 ways: (1) an increased engagement of response inhibition processes when needed; and (2) a decreased tendency to prepare response inhibition as a default state. However, we highlight that this effect of resistance training was only observed among those who trained twice weekly; participants of the once-weekly resistance training did not demonstrate comparable response profiles, both in behavioral performance and hemodynamic activity in cortex. In sum, our findings suggest that twice-weekly resistance training in seniors can positively impact functional plasticity of response inhibition processes in cortex, and that it does so in a manner that complements the effects on selective attention that have previously been ascribed to aerobic exercise in seniors.
维持大脑皮层的功能可塑性对于健康衰老至关重要,而有氧运动可能是促进老年人大脑功能可塑性的有效行为干预措施。阻力训练是否对老年人的大脑功能可塑性具有类似的益处,这方面的研究还很少。在这里,我们发现,12 个月内每周进行两次阻力训练,会导致先前与反应抑制过程相关的两个大脑皮层区域发生功能变化——左中颞叶的前部和延伸到外侧眶额皮质的左前岛叶。这些血流动力学效应与任务表现的改善同时发生。我们的数据表明,阻力训练以两种方式改善了侧抑制任务的表现:(1)在需要时增加了反应抑制过程的参与;(2)减少了将反应抑制作为默认状态的倾向。然而,我们强调,这种阻力训练的效果仅在每周进行两次训练的人群中观察到;每周进行一次阻力训练的参与者在行为表现和大脑皮层的血流动力学活动方面均未表现出类似的反应特征。总之,我们的研究结果表明,老年人每周进行两次阻力训练可以积极影响大脑皮层反应抑制过程的功能可塑性,而且这种影响与以前归因于老年人有氧运动的选择性注意力的影响相辅相成。