Middle aged and still running? You may not face memory problems related to aging

Researchers have found that prolonged walking as part of an exercise regime in middle age can lead to ‘old’ new neurons born in early adulthood, or adult-born neurons relevant to the maintenance of episodic memory encoding during ageing. Networking helps. Episodic memory is a type of long-term memory that involves the conscious recall of past experiences in terms of time, place, and associated emotions. Published in the journal eNeuro, researchers from Florida Atlantic University (FAU), US and Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), Mexico, said the study provided novel insights into the benefits of exercise and should motivate adults. Keep moving throughout your lifetime, especially during middle age.

Decreased cognitive ability associated with aging is associated with reduced hippocampal volume. The hippocampus and adjacent cortices are brain regions essential for learning and memory. Aging-related memory function decline is also associated with degradation of synaptic (the junction between two neurons) inputs from the hippocampus, brain regions on the perirhinal and entorhinal cortex, which are essential for pattern separation and episodic and spatial memory.

A significant increase in these adult-generated neurons, as well as prolonged exposure, was accompanied by an increase in the recruitment of presynaptic (sub)-cortical cells into their networks. That is, walking not only rescued perirhinal connectivity, but also enhanced and altered the contribution of entorhinal cortices to the network of older adult-born neurons.

“Long-term exercise profoundly benefits the aging brain and may prevent aging-related decline in memory function by surviving and modulating networks of adult-born neurons produced during early adulthood,” Henriette said. Is.” van Praag, corresponding author, associate professor of biomedical science at FAU.

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Carmen Vivar said, “Long running can increase pattern separation ability, our ability to differentiate between highly similar events and stimuli, a behavior closely linked to adult neurogenesis, which is an indicator of age-related memory decline.” One of the first to show up.” , corresponding author, Department of Physiology, Biophysics and Neuroscience, Centro de Investigation y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN in Mexico. “We show that running also significantly enhances back-projection from the dorsal subcortical on older adult-generated granule cells,” van Praag said. “This connectivity may provide information related to navigation and mediate long-term walking-induced improvements in spatial memory function. Our study provides insight into how chronic exercise, beginning in young adulthood and throughout middle age Continued exercise helps maintain memory function during aging. Weaver said, stressing the relevance of incorporating exercise into our daily lives.

In this study, the researchers studied the effects of long-term running on the network of new hippocampal neurons generated in young adult rats in middle age. More than six months after tagging adult-generated neurons with a fluorescent reporter vector, they identified and quantified the direct afferent input to these adult-generated neurons within the hippocampus and (sub)cortical regions, when the mice were middle-aged.