Walking, BDNF, Hippocampal Size, and Brain Fitness

Maybe I have an obsession. Maybe I’m addicted to exercise. Maybe.  But here it is, once again: Yet another study has shown that aerobic exercise is good for your brain. Not only does aerobic exercise improve cognition (at least 20 or more studies have shown that), but it can help to prevent age-related declines in the size of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a critically important structure in the brain that is a key part of a circuit that creates new memories.It tends to get smaller with increasing age, but exercise can actually increase its size. The increase in size may be related to increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor (BDNF), a substance in the body that promotes the growth of new brain cells.

In an article published online on January 31st in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers show again that regular walking can make a difference in cognition. This study is new because the researchers also looked at the volume of the hippocampus with imaging techniques and looked at BDNF levels.

Exercise and BDNF levels may also be related to the way that antidepressants work to reduce depression, and we know that for many individuals exercise improves mood. While we think of the hippocampus most often because of its role in memory, it also has important effects in regulating emotion.

You can find the abstract here. The full article is available to subscribers only.

Two More Ways to Improve Your Brain Fitness

One of the themes I see in much of what people write about brain fitness relates to the idea that doing something can improve how your brain works by actually changing how it works, whether it’s exercise, supplements, or computer games.

A lot of people are skeptical about this idea, perhaps because most of us are taught that the cells in our brains are pretty much fixed and don’t change over time, except for dying off as we get older.

More recent studies, though, now have shown that the brain can grow new cells. Other studies have shown that some kinds of brain training change how some of the chemicals in the brain work. And still other studies have shown that cognitive training can have long-lasting effects.

So what can you do to improve your brain fitness?

• Find a rut and get out of it. What habit are you in, and how can you get out of it? Do you collapse on the couch every night and watch TV? Try going for a walk. Record your favorite TV show and instead spend a half hour searching the Internet for something that interests you.
• Learn a little bit of a new language. Learning a new language may be one of the best ways to rewire your brain. Maybe you won’t learn enough to be fluent, but learning about the sounds in a new language may help your ability to pay attention to sounds, and learning new ways to express a concept may help you keep your thinking flexible. You could take a class, but more and more language resources are on the Web.

Although we still don’t know exactly how to improve brain fitness for everyone, research gives us some promising directions.