White matter microstructure mediates the association between physical fitness and cognition in healthy, young adults.

ABSTRACT: We aimed to extend our knowledge on the relationship between physical fitness (PF) and both white matter microstructure and cognition through in-depth investigation of various cognitive domains while accounting for potentially relevant nuisance covariates in a well-powered sample. To this end, associations between walking endurance, diffusion-tensor-imaging (DTI) based measures of fractional anisotropy (FA) within brain white matter and cognitive measures included in the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery were investigated in a sample of n = 1206 healthy, young adults (mean age = 28.8; 45.5% male) as part of the human connectome project. Higher levels of endurance were associated with widespread higher FA (p_FWE < 0.05) as well as with enhanced global cognitive function (p < 0.001). S

SUBMITTER: Opel N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6733843 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature