Short intense exercise breaks to interrupt long sitting and boost older adults' brain health
Official title: Breaking prolonged sitting with high-intensity interval training to improve cognitive and brainhealth in older adults: A pilot feasibility trial
Funded at University of Massachusetts Amherst · NIH-11372052 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project will try brief high-intensity exercise breaks during long periods of sitting to help attention and memory in older adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Massachusetts Amherst NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Hadley, United States) |
| Project start | August 15, 2023 |
| Project end | July 31, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2023 |
| Award (this year) | $222,040 |
| NIH project number | 7R21AG080411-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11372052 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are older adults who can safely perform brief high-intensity exercise and are willing to attend in-person sessions at UMass Amherst.
✕Less likely to help
People unable to perform brief intense exercise because of serious cardiovascular, mobility, or other medical restrictions, or those who are much younger, are unlikely to benefit from this trial.
What this research studies
You would be asked to interrupt long sitting with short bursts of higher-intensity activity while researchers measure attention, memory, and related brain function. The team will compare how these breaks affect frontoparietal brain activity and tests of attentional control and episodic memory. They plan to link any changes to body signals released by exercise that can stimulate brain circuits. This small pilot checks whether the approach is practical and shows enough promise for larger studies.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the approach could improve attention and memory in older adults by replacing prolonged sitting with short, intense activity breaks.
How similar studies have gone: Single-session exercise studies have shown short-term improvements in attention and frontoparietal brain function, but using high-intensity breaks to reduce prolonged sitting and boost memory is a novel pilot approach.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Hadley, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Pindus, Dominika Maria — University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Study coordinator: Pindus, Dominika Maria
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases (NEWVEC)
A center in New England will develop and test practical ways to prevent tick bites and reduce diseases from ticks, while training public health workers and engaging communities.
-
Understanding how minority stress affects cannabis use in sexual minorities
A research project follows young adult sexual minorities to see how daily stress and coping help explain cannabis use and related problems.
-
A non-contact way to measure stiffness in hydrogel scaffolds for tissue engineering
A new method uses 2D acoustic force elastography microscopy to measure how stiff hydrogel scaffolds are, without touching them, to help tissue engineering efforts.
-
Automated neural identification across species and development
A computer-driven project to map and track every neuron in molluscs’ brains as they grow and evolve, to better understand how brains stay organized over time.
-
Nanopore Tweezers to Study Kinase Movements and Find Allosteric Inhibitors in Cancers
A new technology uses nanopore tweezers to watch how cancer-related kinases move in real time and to screen for drugs that stop them by binding at sites away from the active site.
-
Promesa: Urban gardens and peer nutrition to help people with HIV in the Dominican Republic
A unified program uses urban gardening and peer nutrition counseling to help people living with HIV who are food insecure in the Dominican Republic improve their health and HIV outcomes.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.