Exercise Assists Aging Brains

Exercise strengthens our hearts and our muscles. What about our brains?

Earlier experiments involving animals and people showed that exercise increases the neurons ln the hippocampus-the part of the brain essential for memory creation and storage. They also showed that older adults slow the usual loss of brain volume if they exercise.

In a new study, a Rutgers University professor decided to see what happens inside the brains and minds of older people as they work out. Working with local churches and community centers in the Newark area, he recruited sedentary older African-American men and women in their 60s. Half opted to be part of a sedentary control group. The rest attended hour-long aerobic dance classes twice a week for twenty weeks.

Brain scans of the exercisers produced startling results. Portions of the exerciser's medial temporal lobes would light up together and then, within seconds, realign and light up with other sections of the lobe. It was as if the circuits were smoothly trading dance partners at a ball. Their brains had a youthful flexibility in a way that the sedentary group's brains could not.

Further testing showed that the exercisers performed better than the sedentary seniors in their ability to learn and retain information. They also were more able to apply this learning in new situations.

The scientists concluded that regular exercise not only slows the usual loss of brain volume in older people, but also helps to prevent age-related memory loss and to lower the risk of dementia.

-Norm Thomas