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(2max) testing) or motor skill fitness (assessed by the Physical Performance Test (PPT)) affects neural network connectivity in PD remains to be investigated. The purpose of this study was to explore the hypothesis that higher fitness level is associated with an increase in the intrinsic network connectivity of cognitive networks commonly affected in PD. 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(2max) and PPT) and resting state network connectivity. RESULTS: We found that increased estimated VO(2max) was associated with increased within network connectivity in cognitive networks known to be impaired in PD, including those sub-serving memory and executive function. There was a similar trend for high levels of PPT to be associated with increased within network connectivity in distinct resting state networks. The between functional network connectivity analysis revealed that cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with increased functional connectivity between somatosensory motor network and several cognitive networks sub-serving memory, attention, and executive function. 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.