Tae Kim
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Neuroscience
Aerobic exercise is one of the most accessible and affordable ways to lower risk for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias and to support thinking in older adults. How exercise changes the brain to protect memory, and how much exercise works best, remain unclear.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
- Topics
aerobic exercise
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Test whether 12 months of aerobic exercise in the IGNITE trial changes cerebrovascular pulsatility and brain blood flow in adults aged 65–80, and whether these changes mediate improvements in cognition.
- Test whether exercise-driven blood vessel changes mediate reduced brain atrophy, improved functional connectivity, and slower growth of white matter hyperintensities, using pre- and post-intervention imaging.
- Compare 150 versus 225 minutes per week of moderate aerobic exercise against a stretching control to identify the dose producing the largest cerebrovascular benefit.
- Examine whether pre-existing hypertension and type 2 diabetes, and biological sex, moderate how brain blood vessels and cognition respond to the exercise intervention.
More about the research
One leading idea centers on blood vessels: vessels in the brain deteriorate with age, and this is a major contributor to cognitive decline, so repeated training may slowly reverse some of that damage.
Why it matters
Older adults face rising risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and prevention options are limited. Clarifying whether and how exercise improves brain blood vessels, and which weekly dose does so best, could inform more effective exercise recommendations and preventive strategies against late-life cognitive decline.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ulf Bronas
Georgetown University, DC·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether a 6-month home-based walking program improves executive function and other areas of thinking in 116 older adults with chronic kidney disease and mild cognitive impairment, compared with an attention control group.
Maria V. Ivanova
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether high-intensity exercise improves language, cognition, movement and emotional well-being in 110 stroke survivors with aphasia, compared with a matched low-intensity exercise control in a randomized trial.
Hanzhang Lu
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Develop VICTR MRI, a non-contrast method that measures venous transit time from changes in T1 relaxation, in six major brain veins including the superior sagittal sinus and internal jugular veins.
The school
University of Pittsburgh: 83 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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