Cited by 382Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanismsMemory and Neural MechanismsCardiovascular and exercise physiology

Vascular hippocampal plasticity after aerobic exercise in older adults.

Open access
Maass, A, Düzel, S, Goerke, M, Becke, A, Sobieray, U, Neumann, K, Lövden, M, Lindenberger, U +6 more·2015·Molecular Psychiatry

Abstract

Aerobic exercise in young adults can induce vascular plasticity in the hippocampus, a critical region for recall and recognition memory. In a mechanistic proof-of-concept intervention over 3 months, we investigated whether healthy older adults (60-77 years) also show such plasticity. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and volume (rCBV) were measured with gadolinium-based perfusion imaging (3 Tesla magnetic resonance image (MRI)). Hippocampal volumes were assessed by high-resolution 7 Tesla MRI. Fitness improvement correlated with changes in hippocampal perfusion and hippocampal head volume. Perfusion tended to increase in younger, but to decrease in older individuals. The changes in fitness, hippocampal perfusion and volume were positively related to changes in recognition memory and early recall for complex spatial objects. Path analyses indicated that fitness-related changes in complex object recognition were modulated by hippocampal perfusion. These findings indicate a preserved capacity of the aging human hippocampus for functionally relevant vascular plasticity, which decreases with progressing age.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/mp.2014.114

Cites

62 of 62 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Aerobic exercise-induced growth in hippocampal volume was correlated with improved performances on a complex figure test of spatial object recognition (r = 0.37).

    “In some cases the AE induced growth in hippocampal volume was correlated with improved performances on a computerized spatial memory task (r = 0.28; Erickson et al., 2011) or on a complex figure test of spatial object recognition (r = 0.37; Maass et al., 2015).”
  • Increases in cerebral blood flow in the human hippocampus have been correlated with improved performance on episodic memory tasks.

    “This coincides with studies that have demonstrated a greater cerebral blood flow in the human hippocampus (Pereira et al., 2007; Burdette et al., 2010; Maass et al., 2015), some of which have correlated this increase with improved performance on episodic memory tasks (Pereira et al., 2007; Maass et al., 2015).”
  • The positive influence of improving vascularization may extend beyond a greater supply of oxygen and glucose through prompting the release of neurotrophic factors or through facilitating other neuroplastic mechanisms like synaptic plasticity or neurogenesis.

    “The positive influence of improving vascularization may extend beyond a greater supply of oxygen and glucose through prompting the release of neurotrophic factors (the influence of which will be discussed below; Maass et al., 2015) or through facilitating other neuroplastic mechanisms like synaptic plasticity (Christie et al., 2008) or neurogenesis (Palmer et al., 2000; Pereira et al., 2007; Boe”
  • Greater cerebral blood flow in the human hippocampus has been demonstrated.

    “This coincides with studies that have demonstrated a greater cerebral blood flow in the human hippocampus (Pereira et al., 2007; Burdette et al., 2010; Maass et al., 2015), some of which have correlated this increase with improved performance on episodic memory tasks (Pereira et al., 2007; Maass et al., 2015).”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Maass, A., Düzel, S., Goerke, M., Becke, A., Sobieray, U., Neumann, K., Lövden, M., Lindenberger, U., Bäckman, L., Braun-Dullaeus, R., Ahrens, D., Heinze, H.-J., Müller, N. G., & Düzel, E.
Affiliations
  • German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DE)
  • Max Planck Institute for Human Development (DE)
  • Karolinska Institutet (SE)
  • Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg (DE)
Corresponding author
Düzel, E
Venue
Molecular Psychiatry
Published
2014-10-14
Volume
20
Issue
5
Pages
585-593
ISSN
  • 1359-4184 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-5578
OpenAlex
W1992403138
Cited by
382
References
62
Citations by year
2026: 30 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 13
FWCI
7.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Molecular Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Stichting af Jochnick Foundation
  • Vetenskapsrådet
  • Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen
  • Swedish Brain Power
  • Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
Keywords
aerobic exercise, older adults, regional cerebral blood flow, hippocampal volume, fitness, recognition memory, aging
MeSH terms
Aged, Analysis of Variance, Cerebrovascular Circulation, Cognition, Female, Gadolinium, Hippocampus, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Oxygen Consumption, Mental Recall, Statistics as Topic, Verbal Learning, Exercise

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review