Global executive function advantages in older adults with long-term habitual exercise are associated with...

Normal aging is accompanied by declines in executive function, and regular physical exercise has been proposed as a protective factor. However, the neural correlates linking long-term habitual exercise to executive efficiency in older adults remain unclear. This study combined resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) with behavioral assessments to examine whether long-term habitual exercise is associated with executive performance and resting-state neural organization in older adults. A total of 105 older adults (52 long-term habitual exercisers and 53 non-habitual exercisers) completed task-switching, Stroop and N-back paradigms and underwent rs-fMRI scanning. Behavioral outcomes included accuracy, reaction time, task cost and executive efficiency index. Neural measures included amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo) and degree centrality (DC). Older adults with long-term habitual exercise showed higher accuracy and faster responses across tasks, with no group differences in task cost but higher executive efficiency, compared with non-habitual exercisers. They also exhibited higher ALFF, ReHo and DC in frontoparietal, motor and striatal regions, alongside lower resting-state metrics in occipito-cerebellar networks. Mediation models indicated that ALFF in the pallidum, DC in prefrontal and cingulate cortices, and ReHo in frontoparietal regions statistically accounted for the association between exercise status and executive efficiency. Long-term habitual exercise was associated with better executive performance and distinct resting-state functional organization in older adults. Frontoparietal and striatal systems emerged as candidate intrinsic correlates of executive efficiency in physically active older adults.