A new study by scientists at Colorado State University has found other benefits of walking for our brains
Walking is good for health, but now a new study by scientists at Colorado State University has discovered other benefits of this practice for our brains
Neuroscientists have long confirmed that aerobic exercise, like walk, swimming, running or cycling, are healthy for the health of the brain. Now, new research from Colorado State University's BRAiN Lab has provided the first evidence that the white matter, which connects and carries signals between neurons, may also "work" better in response to aerobic exercise, while also enhancing memory.
The study - published in NeuroImage - found that the regions of the brain most vulnerable to aging are also those that benefit most from aerobic exercise, suggesting that walk, swim, run regularly is also an effective strategy to reduce cognitive decline in a world where the incidence of dementia is expected to double every 20 years as the population ages.
In the study, prof. Aga Burzynskae and his team looked at a sample of 180 healthy but certainly inactive seniors:
We decided to include healthy participants so that we could first understand what was 'more normal' in aging and further apply this knowledge later in other populations, such as those with dementia, said Andrea Mendez Colmenares, Burzynska graduate student and first author of the study.
The participants were then randomly separated into groups that met three times a week over the course of six months. One group walked for about 40 minutes at each session. Another took a dance class that became progressively more difficult over the course of six months. And the final group, which acted as a control, limited themselves to balance and stretching exercises that intentionally aimed at keeping the heart rate low.
Each participant underwent a series of MRI scans and cognitive and cardiorespiratory tests to assess the effects of physical activity on the brain. To measure white matter change over time, the team also did a functional MRI of the participants' brains.
In this way, the team found that participants in the walking and dancing groups had an increase in their white matter after six months of aerobic exercise. In other words, physical activity had positively influenced the white matter of the brain, but especially in the regions most vulnerable to aging, such as the corpus callosum and the cingulum, which confer important cognitive abilities, such as memory and executive function. Additionally, this group had another benefit: better episodic memory.
Activities that really increase heart rate may be better equipped to combat some side effects of brain aging, the authors explain.
Although more studies will be needed to investigate these aspects, the results reinforce the idea that white matter is “plastic” and able to change also thanks to exercise and lifestyle.
Sources of reference: Colorado State University, Neuroimage
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