The form of exercise that can provide a long-term brain boost for older adults

Exercise has long been recognised for its benefits to both body and mind. Now, a recent longitudinal study has highlighted a specific form of exercise that can enhance brain function in older adults for years.

As part of the study, Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Daniel Blackmore from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute had volunteers between 65 and 85 years of age perform exercises before undergoing brain scans.

In conjunction with Honorary Professor Stephan Riek and The School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at UQ,  Bartlett and Blackmore assessed the impact of the following 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

Blackmore said it was high-intensity interval exercise that led to cognitive improvement that was retained for up to 5 years with Bartlett confirming that “six months of high-intensity interval training is enough to flick the switch”.

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

“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 5 years after the program and incredibly they still had improved cognition, even if they hadn’t kept up with the exercises.”

Watch as Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Daniel Blackmore from QBI discuss their recent study into how high intensity exercise boosts cognition in healthy older adults for up to 5 years.

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— Queensland Brain Institute, UQ (@QldBrainInst) July 10, 2024

After examining MRI scans of participants, researchers saw “structural and connectivity changes in the hippocampus, the area responsible for learning and memory”, according to Blackmore.

“We also found blood biomarkers that changed in correlation to improvements in cognition,” Blackmore added.

“Biomarkers can be useful in predicting the effectiveness of the exercise a person is doing.”

With ageing serving as one of the biggest risks for dementia and with 1 in 3 people aged 85 years likely to develop dementia, Bartlett said “a simple intervention like exercise” could  “save our community from the enormous personal, economic and social costs associated with dementia”.

Blackmore added that the impacts of their findings were far-reaching and could “inform exercise guidelines for older people and further research could assess different types of exercise that could be incorporated into aged care”.

“We are now looking at the genetic factors that may regulate a person’s response to exercise to see if we can establish who will and who will not respond to this intervention,” Blackmore said.

“The use of biomarkers as a diagnostic tool for exercise also needs further research.”