Engagement in physical exercise has shown widespread benefits on cardiovascular, physical, emotional and cognitive health in older adults. However, initiating and sustaining an exercise routine over the long term (e.g., six months or more) is incredibly challenging. Our historical understanding of the factors that determine engagement in physical exercise comes from psychological and psychosocial theories, of which there are many. Leveraging these theories to develop interventions to change behavior has led to both trivial and sometimes modest improvements in exercise behaviors.
Translating these theory-based interventions into practice lies in the realm of implementation science, which is the science of the systemic uptake of a given evidence-based intervention. Implementation science suggests that even the most effective intervention is not effective if it’s not implemented. The approach we took in our study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise® compliments implementation science by recognizing interindividual differences in the response to any given exercise intervention.
We believe that computational and cognitive neuroscience approaches to exercise behaviors can eventually allow one to match the right person with the behavioral intervention.
Given the brain drives many aspects of complex behavior, we hypothesized that its functioning may hold keys to both novel intervention development as well as personalized precision-medicine approaches. For example, we demonstrated that individual differences in specific neural network properties of the brain predicted adherence to our six-month exercise intervention in older adults. Given that knowledge, we could now target these mechanisms and test whether by modulating that neural target we can modulate future exercise behaviors. In the long term, the goal is to develop validated prediction models of several different intervention types, which can match an individual with the intervention they would benefit from.
A common critique of this type of approach is that clinical spaces and centers will not have the resources to apply expensive neuroimaging to simply “provide” a behavioral intervention to participants. We argue, however, that providing one-size-fits-all interventions to everybody limits the public health benefits of exercise as they can lead to high attrition rates. This is exacerbated when individuals present with noncommunicable diseases, where the timeframe for effectiveness of behavioral interventions is accelerated.
While the results in our current study are unlikely to impact clinical practice currently, the approach and premise paves the way for future research into precision-medicine applications to exercise behaviors. The intersection of computational neuroscience and movement sciences can offer novel approaches to increase adherence to physical exercise interventions and improve public health.
Dr. Timothy P. Morris is an assistant professor of physical therapy, movement and rehabilitation sciences and a member of the faculty in the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University. He has a master’s degree and Ph.D. in neuroscience from Spain’s Autonomous University of Barcelona and a bachelor’s degree in sport and exercise science from Aberystwyth University in Wales. His training and research experience puts his expertise at the intersection of exercise sciences and neuroscience. He is a current member of ACSM.
Dr. Arthur F. Kramer is professor of psychology and director of the Center for Cognitive & Brain Health at Northeastern University. He previously served as senior vice provost for research and graduate education at Northeastern University. He also previously served as director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology and the Swanlund Chair and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Illinois. Professor Kramer’s research projects include topics in aging, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience and human factors.
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