Impact Of Long-term Marathon Training On Age-related Neuroanatomical Decline
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Age related neuroanatomical changes account for an estimated 25-100% of the variance in cognitive ability between young and aged individuals. Thus, age related cognitive decline occurs in tandem with the physical degradation of brain structure. Physical activity has been linked to larger cerebral volumes, improved cognitive function, and decreased risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older adults. At present, neuroanatomical changes to lateral ventricle volume and cortical thickness following long-term aerobic training in older adults remains unknown. PURPOSE: To determine if long-term endurance training delays age-related changes in lateral ventricle volume and cortical thickness. METHODS: Fifteen masters athletes (MA, 59±4 years, endurance training > 10 years), and 33 sedentary but otherwise healthy older adults (CNTRL, 63±3 years) participated. Using 3T magnetic resonance imaging, T1-weighted high-resolution images were acquired. Images were analyzed using a partially automated segmentation tool developed in-house specifically for volumetric assessment of the lateral ventricles. Cortical thickness was assessed using Brain Voyager 2.8.2. Cardiac volumes (echocardiography) were studied on a separate day. RESULTS: MA had a higher VO2 max (50±8ml/kg/min) than CNTRL (35±8 ml/kg/min, p<0.001). Left cardiac ventricular mass was greater in MA (88±14g) as compared with CNTRL (67±16g, p<0.001). No difference in lateral ventricle volume was observed between MA (0.013±0.008mm3) and CNTRL (0.015±0.008mm3, p=0.436). Stepwise regression revealed that ventricle volume can be predicted from left cardiac ventricular mass (R=0.34, p<0.01). Additionally, a preliminary regression of lateral ventricle volumes and cortical thickness in the CNTRL group (n=15) revealed a negative correlation suggesting that larger lateral ventricle volumes are associated with cortical thinning (R=0.47, p=0.10). CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that long-term endurance training has a weak effect on age-related expansion of lateral ventricles in the brains of healthy middle-aged individuals. However, a potential relationship between left cardiac ventricular mass and cortical thickness was exposed. Supported by CIHR.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".