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. 2010 Jun 7:2:23.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2010.00023. eCollection 2010.

Using network science to evaluate exercise-associated brain changes in older adults

Jonathan H Burdette  1 , Paul J Laurienti, Mark A Espeland, Ashley Morgan, Qawi Telesford, Crystal D Vechlekar, Satoru Hayasaka, Janine M Jennings, Jeffrey A Katula, Robert A Kraft, W Jack Rejeski
Affiliations

Using network science to evaluate exercise-associated brain changes in older adults

Jonathan H Burdette et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

Literature has shown that exercise is beneficial for cognitive function in older adults and that aerobic fitness is associated with increased hippocampal tissue and blood volumes. The current study used novel network science methods to shed light on the neurophysiological implications of exercise-induced changes in the hippocampus of older adults. Participants represented a volunteer subgroup of older adults that were part of either the exercise training (ET) or healthy aging educational control (HAC) treatment arms from the Seniors Health and Activity Research Program Pilot (SHARP-P) trial. Following the 4-month interventions, MRI measures of resting brain blood flow and connectivity were performed. The ET group's hippocampal cerebral blood flow (CBF) exhibited statistically significant increases compared to the HAC group. Novel whole-brain network connectivity analyses showed greater connectivity in the hippocampi of the ET participants compared to HAC. Furthermore, the hippocampus was consistently shown to be within the same network neighborhood (module) as the anterior cingulate cortex only within the ET group. Thus, within the ET group, the hippocampus and anterior cingulate were highly interconnected and localized to the same network neighborhood. This project shows the power of network science to investigate potential mechanisms for exercise-induced benefits to the brain in older adults. We show a link between neurological network features and CBF, and it is possible that this alteration of functional brain networks may lead to the known improvement in cognitive function among older adults following exercise.

Keywords: aging; exercise; fMRI; fitness; hippocampus; networks; perfusion; small-world.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hippocampal perfusion (CBF) in each subject. The hatched bars are the individuals in each group, and the mean and SD for each group are the solid bars. The individuals in the ET group consistently showed elevated hippocampal perfusion compared with the HAC group. Note that subjects 2, 5, and 6 are the male participants in the ET group.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Statistical parametric map showing significant CBF differences between ET and HAC in the hippocampus. The middle image shows a coronal slice through the hippocampus and the lateral images show sagittal sections through the left and right hippocampi.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Hub maps show regions that have high number of connections (top 15% of all voxels) that are common across subjects in each population. The hippocampus is among the major hubs in the ET group. In the HAC group a small portion of the right hippocampus is a common hub but much less so than the ET group. Color bar shows the percentage of subjects with a hub in each region.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Consistency of community structure of the hippocampus across subjects. In the ET group the hippocampus most notably interconnected with the anterior cingulate gyrus as well as several other regions. In the HAC, the anterior cingulate only has minor connections with the hippocampus. Color bar shows the percentage of subjects that have each voxel in this network community.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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