Several mornings each week I get a few e-mails from Phil Lawler, founder of PE4Life and most enthusiastic, enegetic supporter of great physical education on the globe (my well-founded opinion). For more about the Naperville High PE/Learning connection click here. This morning he sent over a NEWSWEEK article tying fitness, exercise and cognition that was exciting to read.
In part, it explains (please read the full article), "The Greeks probably intuited a basic principle that Western researchers also figured out long ago: aerobic exercise helps the heart pump more blood to the brain, along with the rest of the body. More blood means more oxygen, and thus better-nourished brain cells. For decades, that has been the only link between athletic and mental prowess that science has been able to demonstrate with any degree of certainty. "People have been slow to grasp that exercise can really affect cognition," says Hillman, "just as it affects muscles."
Now, however, armed with brain-scanning tools and a sophisticated understanding of biochemistry, researchers are realizing that the mental effects of exercise are far more profound and complex than they once thought. The process starts in the muscles. Every time a bicep or quad contracts and releases, it sends out chemicals, including a protein called IGF-1 that travels through the bloodstream, across the blood-brain barrier and into the brain itself. There, IGF-1 takes on the role of foreman in the body's neurotransmitter factory. It issues orders to ramp up production of several chemicals, including one called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. Ratey, author of the upcoming book "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain," calls this molecule "Miracle-Gro for the brain." It fuels almost all the activities that lead to higher thought.
Now, however, armed with brain-scanning tools and a sophisticated understanding of biochemistry, researchers are realizing that the mental effects of exercise are far more profound and complex than they once thought. The process starts in the muscles. Every time a bicep or quad contracts and releases, it sends out chemicals, including a protein called IGF-1 that travels through the bloodstream, across the blood-brain barrier and into the brain itself. There, IGF-1 takes on the role of foreman in the body's neurotransmitter factory. It issues orders to ramp up production of several chemicals, including one called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. Ratey, author of the upcoming book "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain," calls this molecule "Miracle-Gro for the brain." It fuels almost all the activities that lead to higher thought.
All About Kids and READING:
Exercise probably has "a more long-lasting effect on brains that are still developing," says Phil Tomporowski, a professor of exercise science at the University of Georgia. In kids, as in adults, the hippocampus reaps many benefits from exercise. This won't surprise parents of kids with ADHD, many of whom already use physical activity as a substitute or supplement for drugs. In children with the disorder, the hippocampus is enlarged, and it may be wired to the rest of the brain in abnormal ways that affect its function.
But a good workout, or for that matter a boisterous session of kickball, can also have much more widespread effects on children's brains. Until about 20, kids don't have fully developed frontal lobes, so they "recruit" other parts of the brain to perform necessary functions, including those involved in learning. In Hillman's look at third- and fifth-grade PE students, exercise sped up not just executive functioning, but a broad variety of skills ranging from math to logic to reading, all of which rope in many regions of the brain. "In kids you have a tremendous amount of growing brain tissue, particularly in the frontal lobe," says Tomporowski. "So we can't just break it down to hippocampal function in them. Exactly what else is going on in there, I don't think anybody knows."
But a good workout, or for that matter a boisterous session of kickball, can also have much more widespread effects on children's brains. Until about 20, kids don't have fully developed frontal lobes, so they "recruit" other parts of the brain to perform necessary functions, including those involved in learning. In Hillman's look at third- and fifth-grade PE students, exercise sped up not just executive functioning, but a broad variety of skills ranging from math to logic to reading, all of which rope in many regions of the brain. "In kids you have a tremendous amount of growing brain tissue, particularly in the frontal lobe," says Tomporowski. "So we can't just break it down to hippocampal function in them. Exactly what else is going on in there, I don't think anybody knows."
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