Randomized controlled trial of resistance exercise and brain aging clocks

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Aging Research
• Exercise Physiology

Background:

• Exercise enhances cognitive function and brain health.
• Previous studies often overlooked the impact of exercise on brain aging.
• Quantifying exercise's effect on brain aging requires longitudinal assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the impact of resistance training on brain health and aging.
• To assess brain age changes using longitudinal data.
• To investigate the effects of different training intensities on brain aging.

Main Methods:

• Utilized resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data.
• Trained brain age prediction models on a large dataset (2,433 adults).
• Applied models to participants (309 adults) in a randomized trial (LISA) with heavy-resistance, moderate-intensity, or control groups over 2 years.

Main Results:

• Heavy resistance training increased prefrontal functional connectivity.
• Moderate and heavy resistance training significantly reduced brain age by 1.4-2.3 years (p<0.05).
• Observed whole-brain effects, not confined to specific networks, suggesting distributed changes.

Conclusions:

• Resistance exercise training decelerates brain aging.
• Brain age reduction indicates a preventive role for resistance training in brain health.
• Findings suggest a hierarchical organization of brain aging influenced by network-level changes.