These findings extend the scope of beneficial effects of aerobic exercise beyond cardiovascular health, and they suggest a strong solid biological basis for the benefits of exercise on the brain health of older adults.

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In the current article, we provide a critical review of the extant literature that has focused on environmental influences on cognitive and brain plasticity over the adult life span. The review includes both human epidemiological, and human and nonhuman cross-sectional and longitudinal research. We review a number of factors that have been suggested to reduce age-related cognitive decline including both formal and informal education, leisure pursuits, intellectual engagement, and expertise in different skill domains. We also examine the literature on cognitive and physical fitness training. We conclude with a discussion of the gaps in the literature and suggestions for future research.

Publc reporing burden for this collection of information is eaimated to avenage I hour per wespoe including the ine for 'viwing intuctiom. searing existing data sources, gathering and maintaing the data needed. and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

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Previous research has shown that when searching for a color singleton, top-down control cannot prevent attentional capture by an abrupt visual onset. The present research addressed whether a task-irrelevant abrupt onset would affect eye movement behavior when searching for a color singleton. Results show that in many instances the eye moved in the direction of the task-irrelevant abrupt onset. There was evidence that top-down control could neither entirely prevent attentional capture by visual onsets nor prevent the eye from starting to move in the direction of the onset. Results suggest parallel programming of 2 saccades: 1 voluntary goal-directed eye movement toward the color singleton target and 1 stimulus-driven eye movement reflexively elicited by the abrupt onset. A neurophysiologically plausible model that can account for the current findings is discussed.

In the first century, ce, the Roman satirist Juneval famously observed Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano, or "A sound mind in a sound body is something to be prayed for." This implicit link between mental and physical health, also paralleled by Eastern philosophies and practices such as tai chi, has survived the millennia since Juneval and his contemporaries. More recently, controlled examinations of the effects of physical fitness on cognitive performance have shown that improving cardiovascular fitness (CVF) can help to reduce the deleterious effects of age on cognition and brain structure. Thus, as we age, it may well be the case that a sound mind is a natural concomitant of a sound body. Numerous cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have examined the effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive performance in aging humans since earlier studies, which found that physically fit older adults performed better on simple cognitive tasks than their less-fit counterparts. This base of knowledge recently has been furthered through examinations of cortical structure (Colcombe et al., 2003) and neurocognitive function in aging humans via functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging techniques. In this manuscript, we will briefly review some of our recent research on the effects of CVF on brain function, structure, and behavior in older adults. We will then outline some of our current and future directions in this area.