New research is adding to the growing body of epidemiological studies showing physically active older people perform better on cognitive tests than their sedentary counterparts, The New York Times reports.
For the new study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLOS One, researchers scanned the brains of older men and women, aged 60 and 80, using a technique that tracks oxygen delivery to cells to determine brain activity. They also measured the volunteers’ aerobic capacity and tracked their levels of physical activity.
The results showed the most physically active elderly volunteers had better oxygenation and healthier patterns of brain activity than the more sedentary volunteers — especially in parts of the brain linked to memory and cognition, and in connecting different brain areas to one another.
The findings echo previous studies by lead researcher Agnieszka Burzynska, now an assistant professor of human development at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and colleagues at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois in Urbana.
Burzynska noted none of the volunteers formally exercised at all. But those who walked, gardened, and simply moved more each day had brains that appeared to be in better shape than those of the other volunteers.
“There are so many things that may impact brain aging,” Burzynska said, “and so much that we don’t yet understand about the process.”
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