Fitness and the cortical response to autonomic challenge

Age-related cognitive and neural decline begins in healthy adults in the third decade of life and continues throughout advanced aging. Developing support strategies to prevent declines in brain health and achieve a better quality of life in later years requires identification of the cortical sites and patterns of these age-related neurological changes. In this podcast, Editor-in-Chief Bill Yates (University of Pittsburgh) and Associate Editor Sean Stocker (University of Pittsburgh) talk with author Katelyn Wood (University of Western Ontario) about some of the surprising findings in this study exploring the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and forebrain circuitry associated with cardiovascular control. What does this study tell us about the impact of cardiorespiratory fitness on cardiac and neural responses in healthy, middle- to older-aged adults? Listen and find out.

High cardiorespiratory fitness in early to late middle age preserves the cortical circuitry associated with brain-heart integration during volitional exercise
Katelyn N. Wood, Torri A. Luchyshyn, J. Kevin Shoemaker
Journal of Neurophysiology, published online April 1, 2017. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00592.2016 .