Cognitive Labs

Scientists know that exercise is healthy for our hearts and lungs: what about our brains? If exercise improves brain function, then it also is likely beneficial for mood, cognition, and overall mental performance. Within the Cognitive Labs universe, look at Dr. Ashford, a leading Alzheimer's researcher - he runs for at least one hour every day and is in top shape.

Research studies have shown that moderately intense physical activity, and especially aerobic exercise like brisk walking and running, can lead to improvements in cognitive functions like attention, reasoning, and decision making. Experiments have compared groups of people who exercised regularly with others who did not. The improvements in brain function were most dramatic in older adults, but all ages appeared to benefit from increased physical exercise.

One recent analysis looked at the combined results of 18 different studies of the possible cognitive effects of fitness training in older adults. Although the results showed gains in all types of cognitive activity among the fitness-training groups, the greatest advances were found in the exercisers' executive functioning, which controls higher-level decision making skills like planning, scheduling, multi-tasking, and dealing with ambiguity.

We need executive functioning to be able to select appropriate social behaviors and inhibit inappropriate actions. Other types of cognitive activity include reaction time, the ability to remember or interpret visual information, and lower-level decision-making.

Surveys also show that people who are physically active throughout their lives are less likely to experience cognitive decline later in life. And those who exercise regularly are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

Some clues may explain how physical activity can help the cognitive functioning of our brains. It has been shown, for example, that fitness training can improve blood flow in the brain and increase the number of capillaries carrying the blood.

Exercise also increases levels of neurochemicals that stimulate the interconnections among neurons. And exercise may increase the size of some areas of the brain or, at least, slow their rate of decrease as we age. Many of these changes are most prominent in the brain's frontal cortex, the area most important for executive functioning.

So remember, even modest increases in physical activity can be beneficial for your brain and for the important things that organ does for you. How much exercise is enough?

That depends on your age and health, but vigorous walking for 20 to 30 minutes a few days a week is a good start.

Labels: alzheimers, brain, exercise, improves, running

A new study shows that exercise actually builds small capillary blood vessels in the heart among those at risk for heart disease and also stimulates the formation of stem cells in the bones. This confirms two important benefits of cardiovascular exercise... read it

Labels: cardio, exercise

A new study looks at ages and performance on cognitive tests and finds that exercise leads to improved brain effectiveness at all ages - as measured by brainspeed and executive function....

(Urbana-Champaign News Gazette) Older folks may not be the only ones whose brain power is increased by physical fitness, a study by University of Illinois researchers working with Dutch colleagues indicates.

Previous studies, several of them done at the UI, already have provided evidence that regular exercise improves both the brain structure and function of senior citizens, including an increase in the brain's gray and white matter and better performance on cognitive tests.

"Most of the work has focused on older adults," UI kinesiology and community health Professor Charles Hillman said recently.

Now, Hillman, using data from Eco J.C. de Geus at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, is showing that at least some of the benefits may extend to younger adults as well.

De Gues, who studies behavioral genetics, collected an array of data on people age 15 to early 70s. That included information on the physical fitness and cognitive abilities of the participants.

He offered the data to Hillman for examination after the two met at a professional conference. The UI professor studies the relationship between fitness, the brain and cognition.

Hillman, UI doctoral student Matthew Pontifex and kinesiology and community health Professor Robert Motl used the data to look for links between the physical activity levels of the participants, 241 Amsterdam area residents, and the results they posted on a series of cognitive tests.

In line with previous studies, they found that older folks were faster and more accurate on the tests if they were getting regular exercise.

Meanwhile, younger folks, 15 to 39 with an average age of 25, also were faster. But they didn't show a significant improvement in accuracy.

However, Hillman said UI researchers saw improvements among younger adults in both cases in another study where the complication level of the tests was enhanced by forcing the participants to switch tasks in midstream.

"We see both speed and accuracy differences (between fit and non-fit younger participants) in that case," he said.

Hillman said the bottom line is that the studies indicate there may be a link between physical fitness and the health of the brain across the life span. Exercising throughout our lives may have a protective effect against the decline in our cognitive ability as we age, he said.

In particular, the tests were designed to challenge the "executive function" of the people taking them. That's what we use in scheduling, planning, filtering out environmental distractions and multitasking, among other things.

Driving on the highway, keeping track of the traffic around us, looking for an exit sign and sorting it out from the plethora of other signs is the kind of common challenge that taps executive function, Hillman and Pontifex said.

Hillman said the capability appears to be centered in the brain's frontal lobe, the last area to mature and the first to begin declining, which is why kids and senior citizens sometimes have problems with executive function-related tests and tasks.

But earlier studies showed that senior citizens "can return to performance at young adult levels" if they're physically active, Hillman said.

His study using the Dutch data, which appears in the current edition of journal Health Psychology, found both a general cognitive benefit and particular improvement in executive function, in addition to the effect it identified in the younger participants.

The data also included such information as gender and IQ, allowing the researchers to factor those out and isolate the impact of fitness on the cognition testing results.

Hillman wants to explore further how the impact of exercise on the brain differs in older and younger people and the mechanics behind that.

He's also interested in testing even younger participants, perhaps including a study here where kids are tested before and after they go through a directed exercise program.

"We don't know much below the age of 15," Hillman said. "We're working on that."

Labels: brain, brain_games, brainspeed, executive_function, exercise

Tip Seven in our recent series on suggestions for staying mentally sharp was to laugh more and be lighthearted. After all, you have one life, you might as well enjoy it and look on the bright side. And now, British scientists are reporting that just the sound of laughter can make you smile and laugh.

"It seems that it's absolutely true that 'laugh and the whole world laughs with you,'" Sophie Scott, PhD, says in a news release. Scott is a professor at University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Scott's team says when people hear the sound of laughter, their brain areas that control smiling and laughing become active.

The researchers played the sounds of laughter through headphones to 20 healthy people with good hearing (average age: 32).

While listening to laughter, participants got brain scans using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The brain scans showed activity in brain areas that control facial muscles used in smiling and laughing.

In short, the sound of laughter spurred the brain to get ready to laugh and smile.

Participants' brain scans showed similar activity upon hearing tapes of people cheering, but not after hearing cries of fear or disgust.

The findings may explain how the brain mirrors other people's positive emotions.

"We usually encounter positive emotions, such as laughter or cheering, in group situations, whether watching a comedy program with family or a football game with friends," Scott says.

"This response in the brain, automatically priming us to smile or laugh, provides a way of mirroring the behavior of others, something which helps us to interact socially," she says.

"It could play an important role in building strong bonds between individuals in a group," Scott adds.

The study is due for publication in today's Journal of Neuroscience

Labels: alzheimers, exercise, laughter, mri