How aerobic exercise changes the brain's cognitive function

Moderate Exercise Enhances Connectivity in Brain Circuits - Neuroscience News reports on a study that followed 65 adults, aged 59 to 80, who joined a walking group or stretching and toning group for a year. Researchers measured participants' brain connectivity and performance on cognitive tasks at the beginning of the study, at six months and after a year of either walking or toning and stretching.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 9 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   Moderate Exercise Enhances Connectivity in Brain Circuits - Neuroscience News · Neuroscience News · 3 min read

   Fronto-executive network is another brain circuit that aids complex tasks. Older walkers had increased connectivity in parts of this network and did significantly better on cognitive tests than their toning and stretching peers.

2. Read
   

   Aerobic exercise cognitive fitness - Harvard Health · Harvard Health Blog · 2 min read

   In healthy but inactive middle-aged adults who walked briskly for 45 minutes, five times a week, attention and working memory improved significantly compared to a control group. The exercisers also saw improvements in verbal fluency and mental processing speed.

3. Watch
   

   Is your workout routine giving you a brain boost? This neuroscientist thinks it might | Wendy Suzuki · YouTube · 4 min watch

   Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki draws inspiration from animal studies, particularly studies of the growth of hippocampal brain cells in rats, to explore the possible connection between increased exercise and brain expansion. She also looks into the relationship between exercise, sleep, cardiovascular function, and brain health.

4. Book
   

   Spark · Bookshop.org

   Spark is a book by John J. Ratey and Eric Hagerman, published in 2008, on how exercise can benefit learning and people with anxiety, depression and ADHD.

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