Sport keeps the brain young & adaptable

Sport as a fountain of youth for the brain

01/17/2015

The positive effect of sport on physical health has often been scientifically proven. Now, a recent study by researchers at the University of Göttingen could prove that apparently the brain is fitter by the physical activity. In mice, the neuronal connections in the visual cortex showed increased adaptability with increased physical activity, which suggests that sports play a major role in sports „Period of adolescent adaptive capacity in the brain can extend into adulthood“, This is the message of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. The results of the study have been provided by the scientists led by the study leader Prof. Dr. med. Siegrid Löwel in the trade magazine „The Journal of Neuroscience“ released.

Sport has, according to the University of Göttingen „Huge Benefits for Mental Health: It boosts mood, increases stress resistance, improves memory, and slows the decline in cognitive abilities with age.“ According to the latest study results, sport is also apparently a kind of fountain of youth for neuronal connections in the brain - at least in mice. According to the researchers from Göttingen, the adaptability of their brains was maintained much longer during voluntary exercise, and even a restoration of already lost adaptability could be achieved.

Brain adaptable for longer
In the breeding of mice in so-called standard cages, the daily movement of rodents is extremely limited, which leads to the increased decrease of a certain form of adaptability of neuronal circuits in the visual cortex (plasticity) with age, reports the University of Göttingen. Thus, this adaptability was no longer detectable in the mice from an age over 110 days. „However, when the mice had an impeller in the cage, they exhibited this type of plasticity even up to at least 242 days of age“, explains Prof. Dr. med. Siegrid Löwel the study results. „Interestingly, visual acuity showed in the adult Wheel-Mice have the same characteristics as in young mice“, So continue Löwel.

Restoration of neural adaptability
According to the researchers, the physical activity also surprisingly resulted in the restoration of adolescent adaptive capacity of the brain in adult mice. And this „at an age when visual nerve plasticity is usually no longer present“, This is the message of the University of Göttingen. The co-author of the study, dr. Franziska Greifzu, stressed that just a few days of voluntary training in the wheel were enough to make the plastic changes in the brain again.“ Show this, „that it is never too late to benefit from exercise“, continues the Göttingen researcher.

Exercise overall good for your health
The importance of physical activity for health is also clear from a recent study by the University of Cambridge, according to which physical inactivity is more deadly than overweight. Other studies, such as the impact of exercise on the cardiovascular system or cognitive performance, show that physical activity has many beneficial effects on health. But many aspects remain unclear here. The current study by the Göttingen researchers also raises the question of whether the same changes could be observed in humans, as in rodents. Further research is needed to examine the evolution of the adaptability of human brains during exercise. (Fp)