Abstract
Cognitive function declines in late adulthood and this is preceded by atrophy of the prefrontal cortex, hippocampal formation, and parietal cortex. Despite significant loss of brain tissue in late adulthood, decline is not ubiquitous across all older adults. In fact, some adults age quite successfully with minimal decline. This suggests that brain deterioration might not be an inevitable consequence of aging. In fact, mounting evidence suggests that participation in regular aerobic exercise is effective at enhancing cognitive and brain health in late adulthood. In this paper we discuss the evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness and aerobic exercise augments cognition by increasing gray matter volume in prefrontal and hippocampal brain regions.
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Erickson, K.I. (2011). Augmenting Brain and Cognition by Aerobic Exercise. In: Schmorrow, D.D., Fidopiastis, C.M. (eds) Foundations of Augmented Cognition. Directing the Future of Adaptive Systems. FAC 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6780. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21852-1_4
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