title: Relationship between going outdoors daily and activation of the prefrontal cortex during verbal fluency tasks (VFTs) among older adults: a near-infrared spectroscopy study.
abstract: This study sought to investigate the relationship between going outdoor daily and prefrontal cortex activation during execution of the VFT using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in community-dwelling older adults. Blood oxygenation changes in left and right prefrontal cortices were measured in twenty older adults (mean age 76.1 ± 6.7 years) by NIRS during VFT performance. In this task, participants were required to pronounce as many nouns as possible beginning with the letters "Shi," "I," and "Re." Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) levels during the VFT were compared between two groups defined by the frequency of going outdoors: daily or non-daily within a week. Participants in both groups exhibited significantly increased oxy-Hb levels in the left and right prefrontal cortices during the VFT compared to a resting baseline condition. After controlling for age and gender, there were significant group-by-condition interactions on oxy-Hb levels with less activation during the execution of the VFT over both cortices in the non-daily group (left: F=4.76, p=0.04; right: F=6.32, p=0.02). These findings indicate that going outdoors daily is associated with increased activation in the prefrontal cortices during VFT performance in community-dwelling older adults.
authors.affiliation: Section for Health Promotion, Department for Research and Development to Support Independent Life of Elderly, Center for Gerontology and Social Science, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 35 Gengo, Morioka-machi, Obu, Aichi 474-8511, Japan. makizako@ncgg.go.jp
authors.forename: Hyuma
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Makizako
authors.forename: Takehiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Doi
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Hyuntae
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Kazuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Kota
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsutsumimoto
authors.forename: Yuya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Anan
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D010108:Oxyhemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010108:Oxyhemoglobins