AUTHOR=Wong Chelsea N. , Chaddock-Heyman Laura , Voss Michelle W. , Burzynska Agnieszka Z. , Basak Chandramallika , Erickson Kirk I. , Prakash Ruchika S. , Szabo-Reed Amanda N. , Phillips Siobhan M. , Wojcicki Thomas , Mailey Emily L. , McAuley Edward , Kramer Arthur F. TITLE=Brain activation during dual-task processing is associated with cardiorespiratory fitness and performance in older adults JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience VOLUME=7 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00154 DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2015.00154 ISSN=1663-4365 ABSTRACT=

Higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with better cognitive performance and enhanced brain activation. Yet, the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness-related brain activation is associated with better cognitive performance is not well understood. In this cross-sectional study, we examined whether the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and executive function was mediated by greater prefrontal cortex activation in healthy older adults. Brain activation was measured during dual-task performance with functional magnetic resonance imaging in a sample of 128 healthy older adults (59–80 years). Higher cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with greater activation during dual-task processing in several brain areas including the anterior cingulate and supplementary motor cortex (ACC/SMA), thalamus and basal ganglia, right motor/somatosensory cortex and middle frontal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex, controlling for age, sex, education, and gray matter volume. Of these regions, greater ACC/SMA activation mediated the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and dual-task performance. We provide novel evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness may support cognitive performance by facilitating brain activation in a core region critical for executive function.