Exercise Science: Effects on cognitive decline begin earlier than expected

AAs brilliant as human beings are, we work with limited cognitive resources that decline over time. Many researchers are doing desperate research on ways to combat the ravages of aging brain, and the neuroscientists at Columbia University think they have the answer. The good news is that it requires nothing more than a motivation – and perhaps a heart rate monitor.

Neuropsychologist Columbia, Yaakov Stern, Ph.D., lead author of an article published Wednesday in the journal Neurology, found that a regular exercise program seemed to improve the "executive function" in 132 people aged 20 to 60 years. According to Stern, executive function is an important set of cognitive skills that help us plan, reason and solve complex problems (he has recently been badociated with large, intelligent dogs). Unfortunately, executive function eventually peaks at a certain age (this age depends on the person) and then declines as aging affects cognition.

In his lawsuit, Stern found that the exercise seemed slow this natural decline in executive function, which is good news for anyone looking for a simple way to stay alert as they get older. Somewhat surprisingly, he also found that aerobic exercise could improve executive function in participants as young as 20, which can protect against the decline of executive function later in life.

"We hoped that aerobic exercise would improve cognitive function in young people; this had not yet been tested in a relatively large controlled trial," Stern said. Reverse. "I think the improvements we've seen in the executive functions badociated with aerobics exercises are important enough to make sense, even for someone in their twenties."

In his study, Stern asked his subjects of all ages to train four times a week for six months. They either did aerobic training in specific heart rate zones – about 75% of their maximum heart rate – or did stretching and basic exercises. The team then tested the executive function of volunteers in a series of memory or speed badociation tasks: one at mid-point and one at the end of the six-month trial period. There, he reported that scores of people of all ages who were part of the aerobic exercise group – even those aged 20 – had shown statistically significant improvements.

But when Stern looked at the results of his executive function tests, he noted that the older one was, the more radical to improve their score in relation to the initial situation, which suggests that the bigger The study found that exercise does not improve cognition in the short term, but may slow the cognitive decline of the snowball as we get older.

"What we saw was that the impact of exercise on executive function increased with age, so that, for example, a 40-year-old person improved better than 30 years old, "adds Stern. "Since executive function decreases with age, we think that exercise reverses the decline of cognition as opposed to the enhancement of cognition."

Stern explains that exercise can be beneficial for brain function because it can "increase the vascularization of the brain," thus contributing to the regularity of blood flow. He also suspects the exercise promotes plasticity, which allows brain cells to remain versatile and able to create new connections. As part of this study, Stern actually noted that participants in the aerobic exercise group increased the "cortical thickness" of their brain – the outer layer of brain matter.