To think we can alter and improve the basic structure of the mature brain
through aerobic exercise and complex thinking should inspire us to challenge our thinking and get moving at any age.
saw increase in brain blood flow was the
anterior cingulate, indicating higher neuronal activity and metabolic rate. The
anterior cingulate has been linked to
superior cognition in late life.”
Exercisers who improved their memory
performance also showed greater
increase in brain blood flow to the hippocampus, the key brain region affected
by Alzheimer’s disease. Chapman
pointed out that, using noninvasive brain
imaging techniques, brain changes were
identified earlier than memory improvements, implicating brain blood flow as a
promising and sensitive metric of brain
health gains across treatment regimens.
“Physical exercise may be one of the
most beneficial and cost-effective therapies widely available to everyone to elevate memory performance,” Chapman
said. “These findings should motivate
adults of all ages to start exercising aerobically.”
Chapman cautioned that while physical
exercise is associated with a selective or
regional brain blood flow, it did not produce a change in global brain blood flow.
“In another recent study, we have shown
that complex mental training increases
whole brain blood flow as well as
regional brain blood flow across key
brain networks,” Chapman said. “The
combination of physical and mental
exercise may be the best health measure
to improve overall cognitive brain health.
We have just begun to test the upper
boundaries of how we can enhance our
brain’s performance into late life. To
think we can alter and improve the basic
structure of the mature brain through
aerobic exercise and complex thinking
should inspire us to challenge our thinking and get moving at any age.”
The research was funded by the National
Institute on Aging at the National
Institutes of Health (RC1-AG035954),
the Lyda Hill Foundation, the T. Boone
Pickens Foundation, and the Dee Wyly
Distinguished University Endowment.
To learn more about healthy brain habits
to improve your brain health at any age,
check out Dr. Chapman’s book, Make
Your Brain Smarter. n
Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D. is the founder
and chief director of the Center for
BrainHealth, a Distinguished University
Professor at The University of Texas at Dallas
and author of Make Your Brain Smarter:
Increase Your Brain’s Creativity, Energy and
Focus.
Dr. Chapman has a remarkable gift for translating the complex world of cognitive neuroscience into easy-to-understand language.
For the last 30 years, she has focused her
research on how to make the human brain
smarter and healthier.
With more than 40 funded research grants
and more than 200 publications to her credit,
she is recognized as a leading thinker, transforming popular misconceptions about what
smart is, when we are the smartest, and how
to repair the brain after injury or in the face of
disease. Her approach to the science of thinking smarter aims to help people of all ages
improve creative and critical thinking, incite
innovation and maximize brain performance
throughout life.
Visit www.centerforbrainhealth.org for more
information.
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