Long-Term Cardiovascular Fitness Is Associated with Auditory Attentional Control in Old Adults: Neuro-Behavioral Evidence

PLoS One

Stephan Getzmann¹  Patrick D. Gajewski¹  Michael Falkenstein¹ 

[1] Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at the Technical University of Dortmund (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany

关键词: Physical fitness;    Event-related potentials;    Cognition;    Elderly;    Attention;    Geriatrics;    Vision;    Physical activity;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.pone.0074539

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY