Stay Active! Older Adults Who Exercise Have Better Brain White Matter

Staying active into old age is sure to increase longevity. Now, recent findings published in the journal PLOS ONE show that more active older adults have better cognitive abilities. 

"To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind that uses an objective measure of physical activity along with multiple measures of brain structure," said University of Illinois postdoctoral researcher Agnieszka Burzynska, who conducted the research with U. of I. Beckman Institute director Arthur Kramer and kinesiology and community health professor Edward McAuley, in a news release.

For the study, researchers recruited 88 adults between the ages of 60 and 78 who were considered to be healthy but not highly active. The participants were instructed to wear accelerometers each time they walked for a week.

Researchers looked at two different kinds of brain images; the first examined structural integrity via diffusion sensors, while the second one examined changes in white matter related to aging via certain types of lesions.

Findings revealed 95 percent of the participants aged 65 and up had white matter lesions. Even though the lesions are normal in aging people, the researchers found differences in aging people in abundance of lesions between people who were physically active and people whom were not.
However, in those who regularly exercised, they had more intact white matter in regions tied to language and visual and auditory information processing. Yet in those who spent more time sitting, this was not the case. The hippocampus, or area linked to these areas, showed lower structural integrity.

"We hope that this will encourage people to take better care of their brains by being more active," researchers concluded.