Natural Health News – Different types of physical and mental exercise – – have different benefits for the brain .
The magazine Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , researchers at the University of Texas in Dallas found that healthy adults who participated in cognitive training for 3 hours week for 12 weeks showed positive changes in executive brain function as well as a 7.9% increase in the overall flow of the brain compared with counterparts who participated in a study aerobic exercise program.
The small randomized trial is the first to compare cerebral blood flow and data obtained through cerebrovascular reactivity IRM.
The research team attributes of global cerebral blood flow gains a concerted mental effort during training reasoning.
What you need to know
“ Maintaining a healthy brain requires both physical and mental activity, according to a new US study.
“ Mental training for only 3 hours per week improved blood flow to the brain by almost 8%. Poor blood circulation can lead to problems with executive functions such as planning and problem solving.
“ Aerobic exercise did not improve blood flow in general, however, brought improved memory performance.
“We believe that the formation reasoning activated neuronal plasticity by involving brain networks involved in staying focused on a target, such as writing a proposal for short business, while continuously adapting to new information such as feedback from a collaborator, “said Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, lead study author, founder and first director of the Center for BrainHealth, and Dee Wyly Distinguished University Professor.
“Many adults without dementia experience related to the slow, continuous and significant age in the brain, specifically in the areas of memory and executive function, such as planning and problem solving changes,” Chapman said.
“We can lose 1-2% in global cerebral blood flow in each decade from the 20 years. For nearly 8% increase in cerebral blood flow in the cognitive training group can be seen as recovering from decades of brain health since blood flow is linked to nerve health. “
in contrast those engaged in aerobic for the same amount of time each week during the course of the study period, they showed increases in yield immediate and delayed memory that was not observed in the group of cognitive training.
The aerobic exercise group showed no increases in major blood flow globally, however, athletes with better memory performance showed increased cerebral blood flow in bilateral hippocampus, an area underlying the function memory and particularly vulnerable to aging and dementia.
“Most people tell me they want a better memory and observe changes in memory as they age,” said Dr. Mark D’Esposito, co-author of the study and professor of neuroscience and psychology and director of the Henry H. Wheeler Jr. Center for brain Imaging Institute Helen Wills Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley.
“While memory is important, the executive, such as decision-making and the ability to synthesize information functions are equally, if not more, but often take for granted the takeaways.: aerobic activity and training of reasoning are valuable tools that give your brain a boost in different ways “
a multifaceted approach
Dr. Laura DeFina, executive director of the Cooper Institute in Dallas and collaborator in the study, says the results are encouraging.
“We know that physical activity can lead to improved fitness levels. In our population Cooper Center Longitudinal Study, higher fitness has been shown to result in less than all causes of dementia with age “DeFina said.
“This study highlights the benefit of training the body and brain, since both produce observable benefits. The initial results are encouraging and highlight the need for a multifaceted approach when it comes to the brain health. ”