Higher levels of cardiovascular fitness are associated with better executive function and prefrontal oxygenation in younger and older women.

AIM: Many studies have suggested that physical exercise training improves cognition and more selectively executive functions. There is a growing interest to clarify the neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie this effect. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the neurophysiological changes in cerebral oxygenation associated with physical fitness level and executive functions. METHOD: In this study, 22 younger and 36 older women underwent a maximal graded continuous test (i.e., [Formula: see text]O2max ) in order to classify them into a fitness group (higher vs. lower fit). All participants completed neuropsychological paper and pencil testing and a computerized Stroop task (which contained executive and non-executive conditions) in which the change in prefrontal cortex oxygenation was evaluated with near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). RESULTS: Our findings revealed a Fitness × Condition interaction (p < 0.05) such that higher fit women scored better on measures of executive functions than lower fit women. In comparison to lower fit women, higher fit women had faster reaction times in the Executive condition of the computerized Stroop task. No significant effect was observed in the non-executive condition of the test and no interactions were found with age. In measures of cerebral oxygenation (ΔHbT and ΔHbO2), we found a main effect of fitness on cerebral oxygenation during the Stroop task such that only high fit women demonstrated a significant increase in the right inferior frontal gyrus. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Higher fit individuals who demonstrate better cardiorespiratory functions (as measured by [Formula: see text]O2max ) show faster reaction times and greater cerebral oxygenation in the right inferior frontal gyrus than women with lower fitness levels. The lack of interaction with age, suggests that good cardiorespiratory functions can have a positive impact on cognition, regardless of age.

Double-layer estimation of intra- and extracerebral hemoglobin concentration with a time-resolved system.

We present in vivo measurements of baseline physiology from five subjects with a four-wavelength (690, 750, 800, and 850 nm) time-resolved optical system. The measurements were taken at four distances: 10, 15, 25, and 30 mm. All distances were fit simultaneously with a two-layered analytical model for the absorption and reduced scattering coefficient of both layers. The thickness of the first layer, comprising the skin, scalp, and cerebrospinal fluid, was obtained from anatomical magnetic resonance images. The fitting procedure was first tested with simulations before being applied to in vivo measurements and verified that this procedure permits accurate characterization of the hemoglobin concentrations in the extra- and intracerebral tissues. Baseline oxyhemoglobin, deoxyhemoglobin, and total hemoglobin concentrations and oxygen saturation were recovered from in vivo measurements and compared to the literature. We observed a noticeable intersubject variability of the hemoglobin concentrations, but constant values for the cerebral hemoglobin oxygen saturation.

Quantitative spatial comparison of diffuse optical imaging with blood oxygen level-dependent and arterial spin labeling-based functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Akin to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffuse optical imaging (DOI) is a noninvasive method for measuring localized changes in hemoglobin levels within the brain. When combined with fMRI methods, multimodality approaches could offer an integrated perspective on the biophysics, anatomy, and physiology underlying each of the imaging modalities. Vital to the correct interpretation of such studies, control experiments to test the consistency of both modalities must be performed. Here, we compare DOI with blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) and arterial spin labeling fMRI-based methods in order to explore the spatial agreement of the response amplitudes recorded by these two methods. Rather than creating optical images by regularized, tomographic reconstructions, we project the fMRI image into optical measurement space using the optical forward problem. We report statistically better spatial correlation between the fMRI-BOLD response and the optically measured deoxyhemoglobin (R=0.71, p=1x10(-7)) than between the BOLD and oxyhemoglobin or total hemoglobin measures (R=0.38, p=0.04|0.37, p=0.05, respectively). Similarly, we find that the correlation between the ASL measured blood flow and optically measured total and oxyhemoglobin is stronger (R=0.73, p=5x10(-6) and R=0.71, p=9x10(-6), respectively) than the flow to deoxyhemoglobin spatial correlation (R=0.26, p=0.10).