FAN：有氧运动可增强中老年人记忆力

对于中老年人来说，体育锻炼不仅有益于保持良好体质，而且有健脑功效。美国的一项新研究表明，有氧运动有助于增强中老年人的记忆力和其他认知能力，延缓他们的大脑衰老。

美国得克萨斯大学的研究人员近日在学术期刊《衰老神经科学前沿》上报告说，他们招募了37名57岁至75岁之间、不喜欢运动的志愿者进行研究。这些人被分成两组，其中一组在监督下每周进行3次、每次1小时的有氧运动——骑单车或跑步，为期共12周，另一组作为对照。

研究人员对比发现，参加有氧运动组的志愿者，其大脑中与记忆功能相关的前扣带皮层、与早老性痴呆症相关的海马区等特定区域血流量增加，并且他们在相关体检及认知检测中也表现更好。大脑成像技术表明，这些志愿者大脑特定区域血流量的变化发生在记忆改善之前，说明大脑血流量是衡量大脑健康水平的敏感指标。

该报告的第一作者桑德拉·查普曼表示，随着年龄增加，人的认知能力和记忆力会下降，而这项研究表明，有氧运动对改善人们的记忆能力与体质都有好处

英文摘要

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience            doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2013.00075

Shorter term aerobic exercise improves brain， cognition， and cardiovascular fitness in aging

Sandra B. Chapman1*， Sina Aslan2， Jeffrey S. Spence1， Laura F.DeFina3， Molly W. Keebler1， Nyaz Didehbani1 and Hanzhang Lu4

Physical exercise， particularly aerobic exercise， is documented as providing a low cost regimen to counter well-documented cognitive declines including memory， executive function， visuospatial skills， and processing speed in normally aging adults. Prior aging studies focused largely on the effects of medium to long term (>6 months) exercise training； however， the shorter term effects have not been studied. In the present study， we examined changes in brain blood flow， cognition， and fitness in 37 cognitively healthy sedentary adults (57–75 years of age) who were randomized into physical training or a wait-list control group. The physical training group received supervised aerobic exercise for 3 sessions per week 1 h each for 12 weeks. Participants' cognitive， cardiovascular fitness and resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) were assessed at baseline (T1)， mid (T2)， and post-training (T3). We found higher resting CBF in the anterior cingulate region in the physical training group as compared to the control group from T1 to T3. Cognitive gains were manifested in the exercise group's improved immediate and delayed memory performance from T1 to T3 which also showed a significant positive association with increases in both left and right hippocampal CBF identified earlier in the time course at T2. Additionally， the two cardiovascular parameters， VO2 max and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) showed gains， compared to the control group. These data suggest that even shorter term aerobic exercise can facilitate neuroplasticity to reduce both the biological and cognitive consequences of aging to benefit brain health in sedentary adults.