Section for Health Promotion, Department for Research and Development to Support Independent Life of Elderly, Center for Gerontology and Social Science, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 35 Gengo, Morioka-machi, Obu, Aichi 474-8511, Japan.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2013 Jan-Feb;56(1):118-23. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2012.08.017. Epub 2012 Sep 17.
This study sought to investigate the relationship between going outdoor daily and prefrontal cortex activation during execution of the VFT using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in community-dwelling older adults. Blood oxygenation changes in left and right prefrontal cortices were measured in twenty older adults (mean age 76.1 ± 6.7 years) by NIRS during VFT performance. In this task, participants were required to pronounce as many nouns as possible beginning with the letters "Shi," "I," and "Re." Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) levels during the VFT were compared between two groups defined by the frequency of going outdoors: daily or non-daily within a week. Participants in both groups exhibited significantly increased oxy-Hb levels in the left and right prefrontal cortices during the VFT compared to a resting baseline condition. After controlling for age and gender, there were significant group-by-condition interactions on oxy-Hb levels with less activation during the execution of the VFT over both cortices in the non-daily group (left: F=4.76, p=0.04; right: F=6.32, p=0.02). These findings indicate that going outdoors daily is associated with increased activation in the prefrontal cortices during VFT performance in community-dwelling older adults.
本研究旨在通过近红外光谱（NIRS）研究社区居住的老年人在执行 VFT 时日常外出与前额叶皮层激活之间的关系。通过 NIRS 在 20 名老年人（平均年龄 76.1±6.7 岁）执行 VFT 期间测量左右前额叶皮层的血氧变化。在这项任务中，参与者被要求以“Shi”、“I”和“Re”开头尽可能多地说出名词。根据外出频率（每周每天或非每天）将两组参与者的 VFT 期间的氧合血红蛋白（oxy-Hb）水平变化进行比较。与休息基线条件相比，两组参与者在执行 VFT 期间，左、右前额叶皮层的 oxy-Hb 水平均显著升高。在控制年龄和性别后，非日常组在执行 VFT 期间，两个大脑皮层的 oxy-Hb 水平的组-条件交互作用具有统计学意义（左侧：F=4.76，p=0.04；右侧：F=6.32，p=0.02）。这些发现表明，在社区居住的老年人中，日常外出与 VFT 执行期间前额叶皮层的激活增加有关。
