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A study has found high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) boosts brain function in older adults, with improvement lasting up to five years.

Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Daniel Blackmore from UQ鈥檚 Queensland Brain Institute led the in which volunteers did physical exercise and had brain scans.

It is the first controlled study of its kind to show exercise can boost cognition in healthy older adults, not just delay cognitive decline, Bartlett said.

鈥淪ix months of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is enough to flick the switch.

鈥淚n earlier pre-clinical work, we discovered exercise can activate stem cells and increase the production of neurons in the hippocampus, improving cognition.

鈥淚n this study, a large cohort of healthy 65- to 85-year-old volunteers joined a six-month exercise program, did biomarker and cognition testing and had high-resolution brain scans.

鈥淲e followed up with them 5 years after the program and incredibly they still had improved cognition, even if they hadn鈥檛 kept up with the exercises,鈥� Bartlett said.

Aging is one of the biggest risks for dementia, a condition that affects almost half a million Australians.

鈥淚f we can change the trajectory of aging and keep people cognitively healthier for longer with a simple intervention like exercise, we can potentially save our community from the enormous personal, economic and social costs associated with dementia,鈥� Bartlett said.

Bartlett and Blackmore worked in collaboration with Honorary Professor Stephan Riek and The School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at UQ.

During the study, the researchers assessed the impact of three exercise intensities: low 鈥� predominantly motor function, balance and stretching; medium聽鈥� brisk walking on a treadmill; and high聽鈥� four cycles running on a treadmill at near maximum exertion.

Blackmore said only the high-intensity interval exercise led to cognitive improvement that was retained for up to five years.

鈥淥n high-resolution MRI scans of that group, we saw structural and connectivity changes in the hippocampus, the area responsible for learning and memory,鈥� Blackmore said.

鈥淲e also found blood biomarkers that changed in correlation to improvements in cognition.

鈥淏iomarkers can be useful in predicting the effectiveness of the exercise a person is doing.鈥�

With one in three people aged 85 years likely to develop dementia, Blackmore said the impact of the research was far-reaching.

鈥淥ur finding can inform exercise guidelines for older people and further research could assess different types of exercise that could be incorporated into aged care,鈥� he said.

鈥淲e are now looking at the genetic factors that may regulate a person鈥檚 response to exercise to see if we can establish who will and who will not respond to this intervention.

鈥淭he use of biomarkers as a diagnostic tool for exercise also needs further research.鈥�

The research was published in Aging and Disease. It receives ongoing support from the Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation.

Image caption: Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Daniel Blackmore have shown high-intensity exercise boosts cognition in healthy older adults and the improvement was retained for up to five years. Image: Supplied.