Cerebral blood flow and arterial transit time responses to exercise training in older adults

Jack Feron; Foyzul Rahman; Sindre H Fosstveit; Kelsey E Joyce; Ahmed Gilani; Hilde Lohne-Seiler; Sveinung Berntsen; Karen J Mullinger; Katrien Segaert; Samuel J E Lucas

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120919

Cerebral blood flow and arterial transit time responses to exercise training in older adults

Neuroimage. 2024 Nov 5:303:120919. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120919. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; Centre for Human Brain Health, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. Electronic address: j.feron@bham.ac.uk.
² Centre for Human Brain Health, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; School of Psychology, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; College of Psychology, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK.
³ Department of Sport Science and Physical Education, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway.
⁴ School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
⁵ Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
⁶ Centre for Human Brain Health, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; School of Psychology, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁷ Centre for Human Brain Health, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; School of Psychology, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
⁸ School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; Centre for Human Brain Health, University Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

PMID: 39505224
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120919

Abstract

Brain vascular health worsens with age, as is made evident by resting grey matter cerebral blood flow (CBF_GM) reductions and lengthening arterial transit time (ATT_GM). Exercise training can improve aspects of brain health in older adults, yet its effects on CBF_GM and ATT_GM remain unclear. This randomised controlled trial assessed responses of CBF_GM and ATT_GM to a 26 week exercise intervention in 65 healthy older adults (control: n = 33, exercise: n = 32, aged 60-81 years), including whether changes in CBF_GM or ATT_GM were associated with changes in cognitive functions. Multiple-delay pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling data were used to estimate resting global and regional CBF_GM and ATT_GM. Results showed no between-group differences in CBF_GM or ATT_GM following the intervention. However, exercise participants with the greatest cardiorespiratory gains (n = 17; ∆V̇O_2peak >2 mL/kg/min) experienced global CBF_GM reductions (-4.0 [-7.3, -0.8] mL/100 g/min). Cognitive functions did not change in either group and changes were not associated with changes in CBF_GM or ATT_GM. Our findings indicate that exercise training in older adults may induce global CBF_GM reductions when high cardiorespiratory fitness gains are induced, but this does not appear to affect cognitive functions.

Keywords: Ageing; Arterial transit time; Cerebral blood flow; Cognitive function; Exercise training.