Benefits of physical exercise on the aging brain: the role of the prefrontal cortex

Motor planning in older adults likely relies on the overengagement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and is associated with slowness of movement and responses. Does a physically active lifestyle counteract the overrecruitment of the PFC during action preparation? This study used high-resolution electro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2013-11, Vol.68 (11), p.1337-1341
Main Authors: Berchicci, Marika, Lucci, Giuliana, Di Russo, Francesco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adults
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Aging - physiology
Brain
Brief Report
Exercise
Female
Gerontology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Older people
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Reaction Time
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Motor planning in older adults likely relies on the overengagement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and is associated with slowness of movement and responses. Does a physically active lifestyle counteract the overrecruitment of the PFC during action preparation? This study used high-resolution electroencephalography to measure the effect of physical exercise on the executive functions of the PFC preceding a visuomotor discriminative task. A total of 130 participants aged 15-86 were divided into two groups based on physical exercise participation. The response times and accuracy and the premotor activity of the PFC were separately correlated with age for the two groups. The data were first fit with a linear function and then a higher order polynomial function. We observed that after 35-40 years of age, physically active individuals have faster response times than their less active peers and showed no signs of PFC hyperactivity during motor planning. The present findings show that physical exercise could speed up the response of older people and reveal that also in middle-aged people, moderate-to-high levels of physical exercise benefits the planning/execution of a response and the executive functions mediated by the PFC, counteracting the neural overactivity often observed in the elderly adults.
ISSN:1079-5006
1758-535X
DOI:10.1093/gerona/glt094