by University of Queensland

older adult exercise

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A longitudinal study by University of Queensland researchers has found high-intensity interval exercise improves brain function in older adults for up to five years.

Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr. Daniel Blackmore from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute led the study in which volunteers did physical exercise and had brain scans. The research was published in Aging and Disease.

Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr. Daniel Blackmore have shown high intensity exercise boosts cognition in healthy older adults and the improvement was retained for up to five years.

Emeritus Professor Bartlett said it is the first controlled study of its kind to show exercise can boost cognition in healthy older adults not just delay cognitive decline.

"Six months of high-intensity interval training is enough to flick the switch," Emeritus Professor Bartlett said.

"In earlier pre-clinical work, we discovered exercise can activate stem cells and increase the production of neurons in the hippocampus, improving cognition.

"In this study, a large cohort of healthy 65–85-year-old volunteers joined a six-month exercise program, did biomarker and cognition testing and had high-resolution brain scans.

"We followed up with them five years after the program and incredibly they still had improved cognition, even if they hadn't kept up with the exercises."

Aging is one of the biggest risks for dementia, a condition that affects almost half a million Australians.

"If we can change the trajectory of aging and keep people cognitively healthier for longer with a simple intervention like exercise, we can potentially save our community from the enormous personal, economic and social costs associated with dementia," Emeritus Professor Bartlett said.

Emeritus Professor Bartlett and Dr. Blackmore worked in collaboration with Honorary Professor Stephan Riek and The School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at UQ.

During the study, the researchers assessed the impact of three exercise intensities:

  • Low—predominantly motor function, balance and stretching

  • Medium—brisk walking on a treadmill

  • High—four cycles running on a treadmill at near maximum exertion


Dr. Blackmore said only the high-intensity interval exercise led to cognitive improvement that was retained for up to five years.

"On high-resolution MRI scans of that group, we saw structural and connectivity changes in the hippocampus, the area responsible for learning and memory," Dr. Blackmore said.

"We also found blood biomarkers that changed in correlation to improvements in cognition.

“生物标志物可用于预测一个人正在进行的运动的有效性。

三分之一的85岁老人可能患上痴呆，布莱克莫尔博士说，这项研究的影响是深远的。

“我们的发现可以为老年人的运动指南提供信息，进一步的研究可以评估可以纳入老年护理的不同类型的运动，”他说。

“我们现在正在研究可能调节一个人对运动反应的遗传因素，看看我们是否可以确定谁会和谁不会对这种干预做出反应。

“使用生物标志物作为运动的诊断工具也需要进一步研究。

更多信息：高强度间歇训练、衰老和疾病后健康老年个体海马依赖性学习能力的长期改善（2024 年）。DOI： 10.14336/AD.2024.0642.www.aginganddisease.org/EN/10.14336/AD.2024.0642

由昆士兰大学提供