Dancing or Fitness Sport? The Effects of Two Training Programs on Hippocampal Plasticity and Balance Abilities in Healthy Seniors

Age-related degenerations in brain structure are associated with balance disturbances and cognitive impairment. However, neuroplasticity is known to be preserved throughout lifespan and physical training studies with seniors could reveal volume increases in the hippocampus (HC), a region crucial for memory consolidation, learning and navigation in space, which were related to improvements in aerobic fitness. Moreover, a positive correlation between left HC volume and balance performance was observed. Dancing seems a promising intervention for both improving balance and brain structure in the elderly. It combines aerobic fitness, sensorimotor skills and cognitive demands while at the same time the risk of injuries is low. Hence, the present investigation compared the effects of an 18-month dancing intervention and traditional health fitness training on volumes of hippocampal subfields and balance abilities. Before and after intervention, balance was evaluated using the Sensory Organization Test and HC volumes were derived from magnetic resonance images (3T, MP-RAGE). Fourteen members of the dance (67.21 ± 3.78 years, seven females), and 12 members of the fitness group (68.67 ± 2.57 years, five females) completed the whole study. Both groups revealed hippocampal volume increases mainly in the left HC (CA1, CA2, subiculum). The dancers showed additional increases in the left dentate gyrus and the right subiculum. Moreover, only the dancers achieved a significant increase in the balance composite score. Hence, dancing constitutes a promising candidate in counteracting the age-related decline in physical and mental abilities.

[1]  V A Convertino,et al.  A comparison of heart rate methods for predicting endurance training intensity. , 1975, Medicine and science in sports.

[2]  S. Folstein,et al.  "Mini-mental state". A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. , 1975, Journal of psychiatric research.

[3]  J. O’Keefe,et al.  A computational theory of the hippocampal cognitive map. , 1990, Progress in brain research.

[4]  H. Duvernoy,et al.  The Human Hippocampus: Functional Anatomy, Vascularization and Serial Sections with MRI , 1997 .

[5]  C. Jack,et al.  Rate of medial temporal lobe atrophy in typical aging and Alzheimer's disease , 1998, Neurology.

[6]  T J Sejnowski,et al.  Running enhances neurogenesis, learning, and long-term potentiation in mice. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[7]  H. Buschke,et al.  Leisure activities and the risk of dementia in the elderly. , 2003, The New England journal of medicine.

[8]  R. Sutherland,et al.  The aging hippocampus: cognitive, biochemical and structural findings. , 2003, Cerebral cortex.

[9]  H. Kronenberg,et al.  Developmental regulation of the growth plate , 2003, Nature.

[10]  Bogdan Draganski,et al.  Neuroplasticity: Changes in grey matter induced by training , 2004, Nature.

[11]  D. Head,et al.  Differential aging of the medial temporal lobe , 2004, Neurology.

[12]  J. Cassel,et al.  Electrolytic lesions of the ventral subiculum weakly alter spatial memory but potentiate amphetamine-induced locomotion , 2003, Behavioural Brain Research.

[13]  Shane O'Mara,et al.  The subiculum: what it does, what it might do, and what neuroanatomy has yet to tell us , 2005, Journal of anatomy.

[14]  T. Brandt,et al.  Vestibular loss causes hippocampal atrophy and impaired spatial memory in humans. , 2005, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[15]  Cheryl L. Dahle,et al.  Regional brain changes in aging healthy adults: general trends, individual differences and modifiers. , 2005, Cerebral cortex.

[16]  Simon B. Eickhoff,et al.  Assignment of functional activations to probabilistic cytoarchitectonic areas revisited , 2007, NeuroImage.

[17]  M. Desseilles,et al.  Both the Hippocampus and Striatum Are Involved in Consolidation of Motor Sequence Memory , 2008, Neuron.

[18]  Christian Büchel,et al.  Training-Induced Brain Structure Changes in the Elderly , 2008, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[19]  J. Roder,et al.  NCS-1 in the Dentate Gyrus Promotes Exploration, Synaptic Plasticity, and Rapid Acquisition of Spatial Memory , 2009, Neuron.

[20]  J. Donnelly,et al.  Cardiorespiratory fitness and preserved medial temporal lobe volume in Alzheimer ' s Disease , 2009 .

[21]  Nick C. Fox,et al.  A meta-analysis of hippocampal atrophy rates in Alzheimer's disease , 2009, Neurobiology of Aging.

[22]  P. Bandettini,et al.  What's New in Neuroimaging Methods? , 2009, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[23]  J. Donnelly,et al.  Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Preserved Medial Temporal Lobe Volume in Alzheimer Disease , 2009, Alzheimer disease and associated disorders.

[24]  Gerd Kempermann,et al.  Why and How Physical Activity Promotes Experience-Induced Brain Plasticity , 2010, Front. Neurosci..

[25]  H. Dinse,et al.  Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience Aging Neuroscience , 2022 .

[26]  Stefan Knecht,et al.  Physical activity and memory functions: Are neurotrophins and cerebral gray matter volume the missing link? , 2010, NeuroImage.

[27]  Arno Villringer,et al.  Dynamic Properties of Human Brain Structure: Learning-Related Changes in Cortical Areas and Associated Fiber Connections , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[28]  T. Brandt,et al.  Structural and functional plasticity of the hippocampal formation in professional dancers and slackliners , 2010, Hippocampus.

[29]  E. McAuley,et al.  Cardiorespiratory fitness, hippocampal volume, and frequency of forgetting in older adults. , 2011, Neuropsychology.

[30]  S. Knecht,et al.  Physical activity and memory functions: An interventional study , 2011, Neurobiology of Aging.

[31]  Piero Antuono,et al.  Interactive effects of physical activity and APOE-ε4 on BOLD semantic memory activation in healthy elders , 2011, NeuroImage.

[32]  E. McAuley,et al.  Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[33]  Denise Head,et al.  Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Aerobic Fitness in Obese Older Adults , 2012, Experimental aging research.

[34]  T. Kapur,et al.  Fiber Tractography Based on Diffusion Tensor Imaging Compared with High-angular-resolution Diffusion Imaging with Compressed Sensing: Initial Experience , 2022 .

[35]  Hagen B. Huttner,et al.  Dynamics of Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Adult Humans , 2013, Cell.

[36]  Hubert R. Dinse,et al.  Six months of dance intervention enhances postural, sensorimotor, and cognitive performance in elderly without affecting cardio-respiratory functions , 2013, Front. Aging Neurosci..

[37]  Ben Godde,et al.  Not only cardiovascular, but also coordinative exercise increases hippocampal volume in older adults , 2014, Front. Aging Neurosci..

[38]  W. Lehmann,et al.  Auswirkungen einer Tanz- und Kraft-Ausdauer-Intervention auf kognitive Fähigkeiten älterer Menschen , 2014 .

[39]  J. Dukart,et al.  Structural brain plasticity in Parkinson's disease induced by balance training , 2014, Neurobiology of Aging.

[40]  H. Heinze,et al.  Vascular hippocampal plasticity after aerobic exercise in older adults , 2014, Molecular Psychiatry.

[41]  Effekte eines Tanz- und eines Gesundheitssporttrainings auf die graue Hirnsubstanz gesunder Senioren , 2016 .

[42]  Notger G. Müller,et al.  Relationships of peripheral IGF-1, VEGF and BDNF levels to exercise-related changes in memory, hippocampal perfusion and volumes in older adults , 2016, NeuroImage.

[43]  N. Müller,et al.  Improvements in Orientation and Balancing Abilities in Response to One Month of Intensive Slackline-Training. A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Study , 2017, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[44]  N. Müller,et al.  Evolution of Neuroplasticity in Response to Physical Activity in Old Age: The Case for Dancing , 2017, Front. Aging Neurosci..