Abstract
It has been shown that healthy aging affects the ability to focus attention on a given task and to ignore distractors. Here, we asked whether long-term physical activity is associated with lower susceptibility to distraction of auditory attention, and how physically active and inactive seniors may differ regarding subcomponents of auditory attention. An auditory duration discrimination task was employed, and involuntary attentional shifts to task-irrelevant rare frequency deviations and subsequent reorientation were studied by analysis of behavioral data and event-related potential measures. The frequency deviations impaired performance more in physically inactive than active seniors. This was accompanied by a stronger frontal positivity (P3a) and increased activation of anterior cingulate cortex, suggesting a stronger involuntary shift of attention towards task-irrelevant stimulus features in inactive compared to active seniors. These results indicate a positive relationship between physical fitness and attentional control in elderly, presumably due to more focused attentional resources and enhanced inhibition of irrelevant stimulus features.
Highlights
Healthy aging is associated with declines in various cognitive functions such as working memory capacity, processing speed, and attentional and inhibitory control [1]
Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki), printed in the British Medical Journal (18 July 1964). All patients gave their written informed consent to participate in this study, which was approved by the local Ethical Committee of the Leibniz association
There was a significant interaction of Group and Stimulus (F [1,30] = 8.38; p,0.01; gp 2 = 0.22), resulting from inactive participants showing a more pronounced increase in Response times (RTs) with the deviant tones than active participants (Fig. 1B)
Summary
Healthy aging is associated with declines in various cognitive functions such as working memory capacity, processing speed, and attentional and inhibitory control [1]. Deficits usually become manifest in complex task settings, in which concurring stimuli are present, and in which top-down attentional control is needed to focus attention on a relevant and to ignore irrelevant events. Such deficits are not inevitable, and there is increasing evidence that physical fitness can help to counteract age-related declines in cognitive performance. Reviews and meta-analyses suggested that aerobic exercise yields improvement in physical fitness and mood, and in cognition across an array of populations, including elderly [3,4]. The impact of aerobic exercise on cognition yields a moderate effect with the strongest and most consistent benefit in executive functions [4,5]
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