Effects of Aerobic Fitness Training on Human Cortical Function A Proposal Arthur F. Kramer,* Stanley Colcombe, Kirk Erickson, Artem Belopolsky, Edward McAuley, Neal J. Cohen, Andrew Webb, Gerald J. Jerome, David X. Marquez, and Tracey M. Wszalek Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL Received September 6, 2001; Accepted October 16, 2001 Abstract We briefly review the extant human and animal literature on the influence of fitness training on brain, cog- nition and performance. The animal research provides clear support for neurochemical and structural changes in brain with fitness training. The human literature suggests reliable but process specific changes in cognition with fitness training for young and old adults. We describe a research program which examines the influence of aerobic fitness training on the functional activity of the human using event-related functional magnetic res- onance imaging, of humans in fitness interventions. Index Entries: Executive control; fitness; fMRI; neuroimaging. Introduction Research on the relationship between physical and mental fitness dates back several decades and is exemplified by the research program of Spirduso and her colleagues. Spirduso (1975) found that older racquet sportsman were significantly faster on simple, choice and movement response times than older nonexercisers. In a follow-up study, Spirduso and Clifford (1978) found similar results for runners as compared to nonrunners. Results of other cross- sectional studies have produced similar patterns of performance benefits for life-time exercisers com- pared to nonexercisers. The cross-sectional nature of these studies, however, complicates their inter- pretation. Thus, the positive effects of physical activ- ity on perceptual, cognitive, and motor performance may reflect a predisposition of the exercisers towards fast and accurate responding rather than a benefit of aerobic fitness achieved through exercise. A number of researchers have at least partially cir- cumvented the problem of self-selection by employ- ing longitudinal exercise interventions. However the data obtained from longitudinal studies has been somewhat equivocal (Dustman et al., 1994). Clearly, there have been some notable successes in that aer- obically trained individuals have outperformed non- aerobically trained control subjects on a variety of cognitive tasks (Dustman et al., 1984; Hawkins et al., 1992). On the other hand, some intervention stud- ies have failed to observe such benefits to perfor- mance (Blumenthal et al., 1991; Hill et al., 1993). Thus, an important unanswered question concerns why some studies find improvements in performance with enhanced aerobic fitness while other studies have failed to observe such a relationship. Research with animals has made it clear that phys- ical and mental exercise can affect the brain in a Journal of Molecular Neuroscience Copyright © 2002 Humana Press Inc. All rights of any nature whatsoever reserved. ISSN0895-8696/02/19:227–231/$11.25 Journal of Molecular Neuroscience 227 Volume 19, 2002 *Author to whom all correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: akramer@uiuc.edu