Cardiovascular fitness is associated with altered cortical glucose metabolism during working memory in ɛ4 carriers.

Background: The possibility that ɛ4 may modulate the effects of fitness in the brain remains controversial. The present exploratory FDG-PET study aimed to better understand the relationship among ɛ4, fitness, and cerebral metabolism in 18 healthy aged women (nine carriers, nine noncarriers) during working memory.

Methods: Participants were evaluated using maximal level of oxygen consumption, California Verbal Learning Test, and FDG-PET, which were collected at rest and during completion of the Sternberg working memory task.

Exercise improves cognition and hippocampal plasticity in APOE epsilon4 mice.

Background: Human studies on exercise, cognition, and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype show that epsilon4 carriers may benefit from regular physical activity.

Methods: We examined voluntary wheel-running, memory, and hippocampal plasticity in APOE epsilon3 and APOE epsilon4 transgenic mice at 10-12 months of age.

Results: Sedentary epsilon4 mice exhibited deficits in cognition on the radial-arm water maze (RAWM), a task dependent on the hippocampus.

Electroencephalographic coherence during visuomotor performance: a comparison of cortico-cortical communication in experts and novices.

The authors assessed electroencephalographic coherence to determine the relation between cortico-cortical communication and visuomotor skill in 15 expert and 21 novice rifle shooters. They then calculated coherence and phase angles among the prefrontal (F3, F4) and ipsilateral cortical regions (central, temporal, parietal, occipital) during the aiming period for the theta (4-7 Hz), low-alpha (8-10 Hz), high-alpha (11-13 Hz), low-beta (14-22 Hz), high-beta (23-35 Hz), and gamma (36-44 Hz) bands. The authors subjected them separately to a series of analyses of variance (Group X Hemisphere X Region X Epoch).

Exercise, APOE, and working memory: MEG and behavioral evidence for benefit of exercise in epsilon4 carriers.

Performance on the Sternberg working memory task, and MEG cortical response on a variation of the Sternberg task were examined in middle-aged carriers and non-carriers of the APOE epsilon4 allele. Physical activity was also assessed to examine whether exercise level modifies the relationship between APOE genotype and neurocognitive function. Regression revealed that high physical activity was associated with faster RT in the six- and eight-letter conditions of the Sternberg in epsilon4 carriers, but not in the non-carriers after controlling for age, gender, and education (N=54).

The unique relation of physical activity to executive function in older men and women.

Purpose: To determine whether physical activity participation was specifically and positively associated with executive function in older individuals after accounting for age, education, and IQ.

Methods: Participants were 120 healthy men (N = 38) and women (N = 82) aged 65-92 yr (mean = 78.9, SD = 5.