
Regarding cognition, both groups improved in attention and spatial memory, but no significant group differences emerged. Only dancing was associated with an increase in plasma BDNF levels. Pronounced differences were seen in the effects on brain volumes: Dancing compared to conventional fitness activity led to larger volume increases in more brain areas, including the cingulate cortex, insula, corpus callosum and sensorimotor cortex. For analysis of MRI data, a new method of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) designed specifically for pairwise longitudinal group comparisons was employed.īoth interventions increased physical fitness to the same extent. An extensive pre/post-assessment was performed on the 38 participants (63–80 y), covering general cognition, attention, memory, postural and cardio-respiratory performance, neurotrophic factors and–most crucially–structural MRI using an exploratory analysis. This six-month-long program was compared to conventional fitness training matched for intensity.


For the present exploratory study, we designed an especially challenging dance program in which our elderly participants constantly had to learn novel and increasingly difficult choreographies. Dancing has been suggested as a human homologue to this combined intervention as it poses demands on both physical and cognitive functions.
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Animal research indicates that a combination of physical activity and sensory enrichment has the largest and the only sustaining effect on adult neuroplasticity. Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, 1, 2, *, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, 1, Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing, 2, Resources, Supervision, 3, 4, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Writing – review & editing, 5, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – review & editing, 3, 4, Data curation, Methodology, Visualization, 1 and, Project administration, Writing – original draft 1, 4, 5.
