Wong, C. N.Chaddock-Heyman, L.Voss, M. W.Burzynska, A. Z.Basak, C.Erickson, K. I.Prakash, R. S.Szabo-Reed, A. N.Phillips, S. M.Wojcicki, T.Mailey, Emily L.McAuley, E.Kramer, A. F.2016-04-062016-04-06http://hdl.handle.net/2097/32338Citation: Wong, C. N., Chaddock-Heyman, L., Voss, M. W., Burzynska, A. Z., Basak, C., Erickson, K. I., . . . Kramer, A. F. (2015). Brain activation during dual-task processing is associated with cardiorespiratory fitness and performance in older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 7, 10. doi:10.3389/fnagi.2015.00154Higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with better cognitive performance and enhanced brain activation. Yet, the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness-related brain activation is associated with better cognitive performance is not well understood. In this cross-sectional study, we examined whether the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and executive function was mediated by greater prefrontal cortex activation in healthy older adults. Brain activation was measured during dual-task performance with functional magnetic resonance imaging in a sample of 128 healthy older adults (59-80 years). Higher cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with greater activation during dual-task processing in several brain areas including the anterior cingulate and supplementary motor cortex (ACC/SMA), thalamus and basal ganglia, right motor/somatosensory cortex and middle frontal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex, controlling for age, sex, education, and gray matter volume. Of these regions, greater ACC/SMA activation mediated the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and dual-task performance. We provide novel evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness may support cognitive performance by facilitating brain activation in a core region critical for executive function.Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ExerciseAgingFmriDual-TaskCardiorespiratory FitnessExecutiveArticle