Hence, it is important to identify not only which brain areas are associated

with physical activity, but also to understand how the communication between regions is influenced by physical activity. Could the functional connectedness of the network improve after several months of exercise and would these effects mediate improvements in memory and executive function? The connectivity between regions Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical can be examined using several different methods. Regions of interest can be used as seeds to examine whether regions that are functionally connected with the seed region vary as a function of some variable of interest (eg, cardiorespiratory fitness levels). Using a seed-based approach to examine functional connectivity, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Voss et al47 found that older adults that had higher cardiorespiratory fitness levels had greater

connectivity in the so-called default mode network. Further, they found that increased connectivity mediated the fitness related enhancements of executive control. Since the default mode network is reduced in older adults with mild cognitive impairment and dementia,48 increased functional connectivity indicates that physical activity might reduce the risk of impairment by elevating the cohesiveness Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the default mode network. In fact, results from two randomized interventions indicate that the functional connectivity of these networks can be modified after several months of physical activity.49,50 The studies described above focus on three forms of brain health and

integrity in late life: morphology, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical task-evoked functional dynamics, and connectivity. For each of these measures, cross-sectional, observational, and randomized interventions indicate that physical activity is capable of modifying age-related losses and that physical activity-induced Ruxolitinib nmr changes in brain integrity and function mediate improvements in cognition. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical In summary, the human neuroimaging literature on physical activity indicates that the brain remains modifiable into late adulthood, the effects are distributed throughout the brain, but are most robust in the prefrontal and medial temporal these lobe regions. Common biological pathways in depression The Cochrane Collaboration performed a systematic review of the effects of exercise on depression in adults of mixed ages.51 They identified 32 trials (1858 participants) that fulfilled their inclusion criteria, of which 30 (1101 participants) provided data for meta-analyses. Based on these 30 trials, the authors concluded that exercise seems to improve depressive symptoms in individuals with depression when compared with no treatment or a control intervention. In comparison to “no treatment,” exercise had a moderate effect size (standardized mean difference [SMD] -0.67, 95% confidence (CI) -0.90 to -0.43).