TY - JOUR
T1 - White matter plasticity in healthy older adults
T2 - The effects of aerobic exercise
AU - Mendez Colmenares, Andrea
AU - Voss, Michelle W.
AU - Fanning, Jason
AU - Salerno, Elizabeth A.
AU - Gothe, Neha P.
AU - Thomas, Michael L.
AU - McAuley, Edward
AU - Kramer, Arthur F.
AU - Burzynska, Agnieszka Z.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (R37 AG025667), funding from Abbott Nutrition through the Center for Nutrition, Learning, and Memory at the University of Illinois (PIs Kramer and McAuley) and by the Translational Medicine Institute Translational Acceleration Program, Colorado State University (PI Burzynska). We acknowledge Anya Knecht, Susan Houseworth, Nancy Dodge, Holly Tracy and the Lifelong Brain and Cognition and Exercise Psychology Laboratory staff for helping with the study. We thank Michelle Hefner for helping with MRI preprocessing and Vanessa Mendez for helping with graphic design. We thank Dr. Christopher Filley for invaluable feedback on the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - White matter deterioration is associated with cognitive impairment in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease. It is critical to identify interventions that can slow down white matter deterioration. So far, clinical trials have failed to demonstrate the benefits of aerobic exercise on the adult white matter using diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Here, we report the effects of a 6-month aerobic walking and dance interventions (clinical trial NCT01472744) on white matter integrity in healthy older adults (n = 180, 60–79 years) measured by changes in the ratio of calibrated T1- to T2-weighted images (T1w/T2w). Specifically, the aerobic walking and social dance interventions resulted in positive changes in the T1w/T2w signal in late-myelinating regions, as compared to widespread decreases in the T1w/T2w signal in the active control. Notably, in the aerobic walking group, positive change in the T1w/T2w signal correlated with improved episodic memory performance. Lastly, intervention-induced increases in cardiorespiratory fitness did not correlate with change in the T1w/T2w signal. Together, our findings suggest that white matter regions that are vulnerable to aging retain some degree of plasticity that can be induced by aerobic exercise training. In addition, we provided evidence that the T1w/T2w signal may be a useful and broadly accessible measure for studying short-term within-person plasticity and deterioration in the adult human white matter.
AB - White matter deterioration is associated with cognitive impairment in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease. It is critical to identify interventions that can slow down white matter deterioration. So far, clinical trials have failed to demonstrate the benefits of aerobic exercise on the adult white matter using diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Here, we report the effects of a 6-month aerobic walking and dance interventions (clinical trial NCT01472744) on white matter integrity in healthy older adults (n = 180, 60–79 years) measured by changes in the ratio of calibrated T1- to T2-weighted images (T1w/T2w). Specifically, the aerobic walking and social dance interventions resulted in positive changes in the T1w/T2w signal in late-myelinating regions, as compared to widespread decreases in the T1w/T2w signal in the active control. Notably, in the aerobic walking group, positive change in the T1w/T2w signal correlated with improved episodic memory performance. Lastly, intervention-induced increases in cardiorespiratory fitness did not correlate with change in the T1w/T2w signal. Together, our findings suggest that white matter regions that are vulnerable to aging retain some degree of plasticity that can be induced by aerobic exercise training. In addition, we provided evidence that the T1w/T2w signal may be a useful and broadly accessible measure for studying short-term within-person plasticity and deterioration in the adult human white matter.
KW - Aerobic exercise
KW - Aging
KW - Clinical trial
KW - Plasticity
KW - White matter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111004042&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85111004042&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118305
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118305
M3 - Article
C2 - 34174392
AN - SCOPUS:85111004042
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 239
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
M1 - 118305
ER -