Exercise is the secret to a younger brain
A new study shows that men who exercise have younger brains to match their fit body.
The study led by Dr Hideaki Soya from the University of Tsukuba in Japan found that the fitter men performed better mentally than the less fit men, by using parts of their brains in the same way as in their youth.
Younger men mainly use their prefrontal cortex (PFC) for tasks that involve short term memory. Older men tend to use PFC in both sides of the brains to perform the same tasks.
In the study, 60 older men (aged 64-75 years) underwent an exercise test to measure their aerobic and mental fitness. The men performed the ‘color-word matching Stroop test’ involved showing the men words meaning color, such as blue, green, red, but asking them to name the color of the letters rather than read the word itself.
Analysis of the relationship between brain activity and Stroop reaction time revealed that those men that favored the left side of the PFC while performing the Stroop test had faster reaction times. This indicates that older adults who use the more youth-like, task-related side of the brain perform better in this test.
Incidentally, those men who preferred the left-side of their PRF were also those who were fitter according to the aerobic fitness tests.
How do they do this? Professor Soya says “one possible explanation suggested by the research is that the volume and integrity of the white matter in the part of brain that links the two sides declines with age. There is some evidence to support the theory that fitter adults are able to better maintain this white matter than less fit adults, but further study is needed to confirm this theory.”
Category: Features, Wellness and Complementary Therapies
