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Effects of an acute exercise intervention on levels of hippocampal GABA and Glx in young and older adults

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Owen Benzley¹ (), Abigail White¹, Jet Taylor¹, Anke Van Roy¹, Xiaoxi Pan¹, Ryder Robins¹, Richard AE Edden², Ying Li¹, Alan Maschek¹, Adriana Coletta¹, Genevieve Albouy¹, Bradley R. King¹; ¹University of Utah, ²Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

An intervention that has shown promise to enhance cognitive functioning in young and older adults is aerobic exercise. A candidate mechanism for these enhancements is the modulation of cortical excitability/inhibition. Whereas previous research has largely used non-invasive brain stimulation applied to the superficial cortex to assess excitability/inhibition, here we leverage advances in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to examine the effects of exercise on inhibitory GABA and excitatory glutamate/glutamine (Glx) in the deep hippocampus, a region vital for cognitive functioning and particularly susceptible to age-related degradations. Healthy young (n=15) and older adults (n=12) completed a randomized crossover design in which MRS and blood biomarkers of plasticity (i.e., brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and anandamide (AEA)) were assessed before and after a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) intervention and a control condition. We examined i) differences in baseline levels of BDNF, AEA, as well as hippocampal GABA and Glx; and ii) the effects of HIIT on hippocampal metabolites and BDNF/AEA. We hypothesized that exercise increases BDNF, AEA, and hippocampal metabolite levels, with greater effects in older adults, potentially serving to mitigate age-associated declines. Preliminary results suggest differences between age groups in baseline (i.e., pre-exercise) Glx, BDNF, and AEA, but not GABA. We found no evidence that exercise modulated hippocampal Glx or GABA. Both BDNF and AEA increased post-exercise in older adults, suggesting that exercise may minimize age-related reductions in these blood biomarkers. Further investigations into the effects of exercise on cognitive functioning are necessary and will have applications in healthy and pathological aging contexts.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Development & aging