Study: Aerobics exercises can improve thinking skills in adults of all ages

(Reuters) – Many studies have shown that aerobic exercises can improve cognition in older adults, but a new small study found that intense exercise also improves the thinking skills of younger adults.

After six months of aerobics training, adults aged 20 to 67 experienced an improvement in executive functions – cognitive processes important for reasoning, planning, and problem solving – and an increase in gray matter. in the region of the brain, an important material for these functions.

The study group of the Journal of Neurosurgery reported that the comparison group, which only practiced stretching exercises during the same period, did not achieve the same benefits.

"People think that mental decline occurs later in life," said author of the study, Yakov Stern, a neuroscientist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "But even at age 30, you need help."

"Many studies show a decline in these jobs from the 1920s. The message of this study is therefore that aerobics exercises are really very important."

In the absence of such studies on young adults and middle-aged adults, Stern and his colleagues used 132 volunteers aged 20 or older to participate in an experiment to examine the effects of HIV / AIDS. Exercise on cognition and brain structure. None of the volunteers practiced aerobics before the study.

At the beginning of the experiment, volunteers underwent tests to evaluate executive functions, transient memory, mental processing speed, language skills and concentration. The researchers randomly divided them into two groups, one aerobics and the other stretching and stretching.

By the end of the study period, the longitudinal training group had not found any significant increase in cognitive abilities, while all ages of the aerobic group were experiencing a significant increase in mental function – although older participants showed greater improvement than younger participants.

Magnetic resonance imaging also showed an increase in frontal cortex thickness of those who did aerobics at the end of the 24-week study.

Kirk Eriksson, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, said the new study confirmed that exercise was "a very promising way of influencing cognitive function."

Eriksson said the study "suggests that physical activity is a powerful drug to promote brain health and cognitive health throughout life."