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Maximal aerobic capacity is associated with hippocampal cognitive reserve in older adults with amnestic mild

Tamir Eisenstein1,2, Galit Yogev-Seligmann1,2, Elissa Ash1,3

  • 1Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Hippocampus
|December 14, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Maximal aerobic capacity (MAC) may support cognitive reserve in mild cognitive impairment by altering the relationship between hippocampal volume and memory. Higher MAC is linked to increased brain activation under demanding tasks.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Gerontology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Maximal aerobic capacity (MAC) correlates with brain maintenance in healthy aging.
  • Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) involves hippocampal deterioration, but the MAC-hippocampal link is unclear.
  • Cognitive reserve (CR) mechanisms may mediate brain structure-cognition relationships in neurodegeneration.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between MAC and the hippocampus in aMCI patients.
  • To explore whether brain maintenance or cognitive reserve models better explain this association.
  • To examine MAC's impact on neural activity during memory tasks in aMCI.

Main Methods:

  • Structural MRI and functional MRI (fMRI) were used in 29 aMCI patients.
  • Group-level analysis compared higher-fit vs. lower-fit patients based on MAC.
  • Individual-level correlation assessed the relationship between hippocampal volume and memory performance.

Main Results:

  • MAC correlated with smaller hippocampal volume, contradicting the brain maintenance model.
  • Higher-fit patients showed a weaker correlation between hippocampal volume and memory, supporting CR.
  • Higher MAC was associated with increased cortical/sub-cortical activation during novel stimuli encoding and preserved hippocampal activity.

Conclusions:

  • MAC may enhance hippocampal-related cognitive reserve in aMCI by decoupling hippocampal structure from cognitive function.
  • Higher MAC is linked to greater neural resource recruitment under cognitive demand.
  • Aerobic fitness may represent a modifiable factor influencing cognitive resilience in aMCI.
Keywords:
cardiorespiratory fitnesscognitive reservehippocampusmemorymild cognitive impairmentneuroimaging

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