Acute effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive function in older adults.

The present study investigated the effects of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive brain functions of older adults. Twenty-four males (12 older and 12 younger adults) performed a modified flanker task during a baseline session (no exercise) and after light and moderate cycling exercise in counterbalanced order on different days while measures of task performance and the P3 component of an event-related brain potential were collected. The results indicated that, for both age groups, reaction time following moderate exercise was shorter relative to the other sessions, and P3 latencies following both light and moderate exercise were shorter compared with the baseline session. In contrast, P3 amplitude increased only following moderate exercise in younger adults. These findings suggest that light and moderate exercises improve cognitive function across the adult lifespan, although the mechanisms underlying the effects of observed acute aerobic exercise on cognitive function may be age dependent.

[1]  Glenn F. Wilson,et al.  Task decision difficulty: effects on ERPs in a same-different letter classification task , 1994, Biological Psychology.

[2]  Charles H Hillman,et al.  A cross-sectional examination of age and physical activity on performance and event-related brain potentials in a task switching paradigm. , 2006, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[3]  A. Kramer,et al.  Fitness Effects on the Cognitive Function of Older Adults , 2003, Psychological science.

[4]  J. Polich,et al.  Meta-analysis of P300 normative aging studies. , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[5]  J J Tecce,et al.  Contingent negative variation and the distraction--arousal hypothesis. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[6]  Arthur F. Kramer,et al.  Assessing the development of automatic processing: An application of dual-task and event-related brain potential methodologies , 1988, Biological Psychology.

[7]  Shintaro Funahashi,et al.  Neuronal mechanisms of executive control by the prefrontal cortex , 2001, Neuroscience Research.

[8]  R. West,et al.  An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. , 1996, Psychological bulletin.

[9]  Tetsuo Kida,et al.  Differential influences of exercise intensity on information processing in the central nervous system , 2004, European Journal of Applied Physiology.

[10]  Danielle J. Tisserand,et al.  On the Involvement of Prefrontal Networks in Cognitive Ageing , 2003, Cortex.

[11]  C. Emery,et al.  Acute effects of exercise on cognition in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. , 2001, American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine.

[12]  Margot J. Taylor,et al.  Guidelines for using human event-related potentials to study cognition: recording standards and publication criteria. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[13]  R. Thomson,et al.  A systematic review of cognitive decline in the general elderly population , 2003, International journal of geriatric psychiatry.

[14]  E. Donchin.  Presidential address, 1980. Surprise!...Surprise? , 1981, Psychophysiology.

[15]  A. Kramer,et al.  Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition , 2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[16]  Arthur F Kramer,et al.  Exercise, cognition, and the aging brain. , 2006, Journal of applied physiology.

[17]  Michael Falkenstein,et al.  Flanker interference in young and older participants as reflected in event-related potentials , 2008, Brain Research.

[18]  G. McCarthy,et al.  Augmenting mental chronometry: the P300 as a measure of stimulus evaluation time. , 1977, Science.

[19]  N. Takeshima,et al.  Critical determinants of endurance performance in middle-aged and elderly endurance runners with heterogeneous training habits , 2006, European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology.

[20]  Y. Nishihira,et al.  The interactive effect of exercise intensity and task difficulty on human cognitive processing. , 2007, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[21]  Tetsuo Kida,et al.  Changes in arousal level by differential exercise intensity , 2004, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[22]  C W Eriksen,et al.  Information processing in visual search: A continuous flow conception and experimental results , 1979, Perception & psychophysics.

[23]  E Donchin,et al.  A metric for thought: a comparison of P300 latency and reaction time. , 1981, Science.

[24]  Catherine R. Harrison,et al.  Ageing, fitness and neurocognitive function , 1999, Nature.

[25]  M. Borrie,et al.  Acute Effects of Exercise on Neuropsychological Function in Elderly Subjects , 1988, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

[26]  E. Donchin,et al.  Performance of concurrent tasks: a psychophysiological analysis of the reciprocity of information-processing resources. , 1983, Science.

[27]  William L. Wilkie,et al.  Presidential Address: 1980 , 1981 .

[28]  David L. Strayer,et al.  Aging and inhibition: beyond a unitary view of inhibitory processing in attention. , 1994, Psychology and aging.

[29]  K. Kamijo.  Effects of Acute Exercise on Event-Related Brain Potentials , 2009 .

[30]  C. Doucet,et al.  The effect of response execution on P3 latency, reaction time, and movement time. , 1999, Psychophysiology.

[31]  Charles H Hillman,et al.  Acute cardiovascular exercise and executive control function. , 2003, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[32]  A. Kramer,et al.  Perceptual organization and focused attention: The role of objects and proximity in visual processing , 1991, Perception & psychophysics.

[33]  J. Chmura,et al.  Choice Reaction Time During Graded Exercise in Relation to Blood Lactate and Plasma Catecholamine Thresholds , 1994, International journal of sports medicine.

[34]  Paige E. Scalf,et al.  Aerobic exercise training increases brain volume in aging humans. , 2006, The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences.

[35]  A Kok,et al.  Age-related differences in the timing of stimulus and response processes during visual selective attention: performance and psychophysiological analyses. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[36]  A Kok,et al.  Perceptual factors affecting age-related differences in focused attention: performance and psychophysiological analyses. , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[37]  G. Borg,et al.  Perceived exertion: a note on "history" and methods. , 1973, Medicine and science in sports.