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Vascular hippocampal plasticity after aerobic exercise in older adults

Molecular Psychiatry volume 20, pages 585–593 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Aerobic exercise in young adults can induce vascular plasticity in the hippocampus, a critical region for recall and recognition memory. In a mechanistic proof-of-concept intervention over 3 months, we investigated whether healthy older adults (60–77 years) also show such plasticity. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and volume (rCBV) were measured with gadolinium-based perfusion imaging (3 Tesla magnetic resonance image (MRI)). Hippocampal volumes were assessed by high-resolution 7 Tesla MRI. Fitness improvement correlated with changes in hippocampal perfusion and hippocampal head volume. Perfusion tended to increase in younger, but to decrease in older individuals. The changes in fitness, hippocampal perfusion and volume were positively related to changes in recognition memory and early recall for complex spatial objects. Path analyses indicated that fitness-related changes in complex object recognition were modulated by hippocampal perfusion. These findings indicate a preserved capacity of the aging human hippocampus for functionally relevant vascular plasticity, which decreases with progressing age.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Otto-von-Guericke University (IKND) for funding this study and the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology for providing access to their 7 Tesla MR scanner. Furthermore, we thank Urte Schneider for recruitment and neuropsychological testing and Anica Weber for subfield segmentation. We also thank Hartmut Schütze for editing the figures. LB was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare, Swedish Brain Power, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, and a donation from the af Jochnick Foundation.

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  1. A Maass and S Düzel: These authors contributed equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    A Maass & E Düzel

  2. German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Site, Magdeburg, Germany

    A Maass, M Goerke, A Becke, U Sobieray, K Neumann, H-J Heinze, N G Müller & E Düzel

  3. Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

    S Düzel, M Lövden & U Lindenberger

  4. Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    M Lövden & L Bäckman

  5. Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany

    R Braun-Dullaeus, D Ahrens, H-J Heinze, N G Müller & E Düzel

  6. Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany

    H-J Heinze

  7. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK

    E Düzel

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Maass, A., Düzel, S., Goerke, M. et al. Vascular hippocampal plasticity after aerobic exercise in older adults. Mol Psychiatry 20, 585–593 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2014.114

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