The Effects of Cardiorespiratory and Motor Skill Fitness on Intrinsic Functional Connectivity of Neural Networks in Individuals with Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Studies in aging older adults have shown the positive association between cognition and exercise related fitness, particularly cardiorespiratory fitness. These reports have also demonstrated the association of high cardiorespiratory fitness, as well as other types of fitness, on the reversal of age-related decline in neural network connectivity, highlighting the potential role of fitness on age- and disease-related brain changes. While the clinical benefits of exercise are well-documented in Parkinson's disease (PD), the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness (assessed by estimated VO

Methods: In this cross-sectional resting state fMRI, we used a multivariate statistical approach based on high-dimensional independent component analysis (ICA) to investigate the association between two independent fitness metrics (estimated VO

Results: We found that increased estimated VO

Conclusion: This study provides important empirical data supporting the potential association between two forms of fitness and multiple resting state networks impacting PD cognition. Linking fitness to circuit specific modulation of resting state network connectivity will help establish a neural basis for the positive effects of fitness and specific exercise modalities and provide a foundation to identify underlying mechanisms to promote repair.