I’ve posted on this topic before, but a 1/09/13 article in the New York Times reports whether the benefits of exercise persist after subjects (in this case lab rats) stop exercising. In one of the latest studies on the subject, exercise was linked to “newborn neurons in the hippocamus, or memory center of the brain”; the rats that exercised did significantly better on memory tests, but, alas, after a mere three weeks of the lab-rat equivalent of couch-potatoing, performance returned to levels equivalent to the sedentary rats. In order to maintain the increased rates of neural cell growth (not to mention the ability to use serotonin more efficiently to control anxiety and other moods), subjects must continue to exercise. As with the muscular and cardiovascular benefits of exercise, to benefit cognitively from physical activity, you must ” Just (Keep) Do(ing) It!”
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One Comment
An update: in today’s NYT (1/28/13), there’s an article on how improving sleep in older people can improve memory, especially memory of unfamiliar material. While the article talks about the use of electrodes to improve the effect slow-wave sleep phase on the prefrontal cortex, there’s another way to improve sleep: as Ken Paller, a professor of psychology and the director of the cognitive neuroscience program at Northwestern University, says, “There are also a number of other ways you can improve sleep, including exercise.” So exercise improves cognition at the neurotranmitter level but also improves sleep to help with memory.
“Aging in Brain Found to Hurt Sleep Needed for Memory”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/health/brain-aging-linked-to-sleep-related-memory-decline.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130128&_r=0