When I was about to turn
40, I started working out regularly after years of inactivity. As I sweated my
way through cardio, weights, and dance classes, I noticed that exercise wasn’t
just changing my body. It was also profoundly transforming my brain—for the
better.
The immediate effects of
exercise on my mood and thought process proved to be a powerful motivational
tool. And as a neuroscientist and workout devotee, I’ve come to believe that
these neurological benefits could have profound implications for how we live,
learn and age as a society.
Let’s start with one of
the most practical immediate benefits of breaking a sweat: exercise combats
stress. Exercise is a powerful way to combat feelings of stress because it
causes immediate increases in levels of key neurotransmitters, including
serotonin, noradrenalin, dopamine and endorphins, which are often depleted by
anxiety and depression. That’s why going for a run or spending 30 minutes on
the elliptical can boost our moods immediately—combatting the negative feelings
we often associate with chronic stressors we deal with every day.
Exercise improves our
ability to shift and focus attention. In my lab, we have also demonstrated
that exercise improves our ability to shift and focus attention. Even casual
exercisers will recognize this effect. It’s that heightened sense of focus that
you feel right after you’ve gotten your blood flowing, whether it be a brisk
walk with the dog or a full-on Crossfit workout. These findings suggest that if
you have a big presentation or meeting where you need your focus and attention
to be at its peak, you should get in a workout ahead of time to maximize those
brain functions.
But my favorite neuroscience-based motivation for exercise
relates to its effects on the hippocampus—a key brain structure that’s critical
for long-term memory. We all have two hippocampi: one on the right side of the
brain and the other on the left. The hippocampus is unique because it is one of
only two brain areas where new brain cells continue to be generated throughout
our lives, a process called adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
Studies
in rodents demonstrated that increased levels of physical exercise
can result in improved memory by enhancing both the birth rate and the survival
of new hippocampal brain cells. Exercise encourages the long-term growth of
hippocampal cells by immediately increasing levels of a key growth factor in
the hippocampus called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF. Now, when I
exercise, I imagine BDNF levels surging in my hippocampi, encouraging all those
new hippocampal cells to grow.
All this should serve as a powerful motivator
for regular physical activity. But the immediate and long-term benefits of
exercise on the brain have even bigger implications.
Exercise could help
students better absorb everything from history lessons to chemistry
experiments–and they’d be happier too. Just consider how the educational system
might be altered if we acknowledge exercise’s ability to brighten our mood,
decrease stress, and improve our attention span and memory. The growing
evidence that exercise improves these key brain functions should encourage
schools around the world to increase—not decrease—students’ physical activity. Not
only would this help students to better absorb everything from history lessons
to chemistry experiments, they’d be a lot happier too.
The positive brain-based
effects of exercise for education are just as relevant for very young children.
The growing popularity of outdoor preschools are a promising sign that
this message is starting to get through.
These brain effects of
exercise also have implications for our search for that magic “smart” pill we hope will make us more
productive, successful, and—if you believe the Bradley Cooper film
“Limitless”—a lot sexier as well. What if the real magic does not come in the
form of a pill, but in the form of an exercise regimen?
That’s exactly what the
neuroscience research suggests. In fact, my lab is focusing on identifying how
we can use exercise to optimize brain function for people of all ages, fitness
levels and abilities. If regular exercise becomes routine for the vast majority
of children and adults, we could have a population that’s not only healthier
and less stressed, but also more productive.
Exercise could make
students more imaginative at school and adults more creative at work. The good
news doesn’t end there. Recent findings have suggested that the brain’s
hippocampus is also involved in giving people the ability
to imagine new situations. Since we know that exercise enhances the
birth of new hippocampal brain cells and can improve memory function, this
discovery suggests that exercise might be able to improve the imaginative
functions of the hippocampus as well.
This idea has not yet been
tested in people. But the hypothesis raises the exciting possibility that
exercise could make students more imaginative at school and adults more
creative at work, with broad benefits for society as a whole.
It is also worth
noting one of the most profound long-term benefits of exercise on the brain.
That is, the longer and more regularly you exercise through your life, the
lower your chances are of suffering from cognitive decline and dementia as you
age. Part of this effect can be attributed to the build-up in the numbers of
healthy young hippocampal cells as you exercise over the years.
Granted, this is a very
long-term benefit that may not be seen for decades to come. But if more people
were to join the gym this month and actually stick to it, more of us will be
able to avoid debilitating cognitive decline, which could save society billions
of dollars as we enter old age. This problem is even more relevant for
countries with particularly large aging populations,
including the US, Japan and Germany.
In these ways, neuroscience
gives us a framework to understand exercise as a tool for better education,
increased productivity in the workforce and combating cognitive decline. It’s
time for us to stop using the looming prospect of beach season as the
motivation for exercise—and instead shift the conversation to a discussion
about how staying active can change the way we live.
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