A new study from the University of Maryland School of Public Health shows that moderate physical activity may protect brain health in older adults at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and stave off shrinkage of the hippocampus – the brain region responsible for memory and spatial orientation that is attacked first in the disease. Dr. J. Carson Smith, a kinesiology researcher at the school who conducted the study, says that while all of us will lose some brain volume as we age, those with an increased genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease typically show greater hippocampal atrophy over time. The findings are published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.