Excercise linked with brain functioning

New research shows that regular exercise will work to improve brain activity. The study was conducted by Cambridge scientists, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They were able to prove conclusively, that excercise is linked with brain capacity.

The research involved mice and simply speaking, rodents who were given the most excercise, were able to grow additional cells, in the segment of the brain, responsible for memory capacity. The experts behind the study believe that the fresh cells were responsible for improvement in cognitive performance.

The purpose of the research was to find out exactly how and why, exercise levels were linked with brain capacity. Specialists from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge, alongside researchers from the National Institute of Aging in Baltimore, looked to replicate previous studies which have shown a clear link between exercise and brain functioning.

The fresh findings found that mice which exercise are more capable of differentiating between memories, of 2 similar things.

The study itself was conducted on 2 separate groups of rodents, over a period of 105 days. The mice were trained in a variety of small actions, including touching a box on a computer screen, to obtain small food pellets.

One group was given unlimited access to an exercise wheel, whilst the other was prevented from exercising all together. Rodents given a wheel, ran for 20km (12 miles) a day on average.

Findings

Both sets were shown two boxes on a screen. One of the boxes released a treat when touched. The mice were able to memorise which box released the treat. The boxes were then moved around, and moved close together making the task more difficult.

The mice that were given greater exercise performed far better in this task. Once the boxes were moved apart, enabling the mice to distinguish between the two, both sets completed the task successfully, to an even degree.

How can we relate?

Although this particular study was carried out on mice, previous studies have shown that exercise can increase brain activity in both animals and humans. It could be argued that we could use the findings, and use them positively. To date, a number of government schemes are aimed at getting parents and schools to encourage children to exercise more, to cur our growingly excessive child obesity rates. This is surely, yet another incentive to create more awareness schemes.