Keeping Your Brain Healthy: Brain-FX

Brain Break: Necessary for Learning

Rats do it, why shouldn't we? Scientist are learning what goes on in the brain of rats while learning to successfully complete a maze. And, this explains why all those time outs in sports pay off.

The experiment: Put lab rats into unfamiliar mazes and monitored their behaviors upon completion of their exploration.

Findings: The rats routinely rested after each 'test.' But their short-term memory neurons were busy at work repeatedly reviewing the maze's path - in reverse - at speeds up to 10 times faster than the original experience.

Interpretation: "This implies that it's not just during an experience that learning occurs," says David Foster, head of the research team. "If we're right, the period after the experience is just as important, but maybe more important."

"Don't feel guilty about the breaks you've been sneaking at work - they could be helping you learn." So reports Elise Kleeman in her May 2006 article in Discover magazine, titled, "Relax and Think Like a Rat," based on the work of some neuroscientists at MIT.

Next time you look at Roger Federer during a changeover, you know what his brain is doing during those 90 seconds: learning what he needs to do next.

(This post was originally seen in Barry Zweibel's Gottagettablog! under the title "In favor of (yet another) coffee break" .)

Barry writes, "All of those late-morning or mid-afternoon Starbucks' run might not be such a bad thing. Not only do they provide that added caffeine kick, but they might also be providing us the opportunity to integrate the day's learning into our longer-term memories."

Makes sense to me. I didn't really need another excuse for taking a break, but this will do nicely.

More Proof Exercise is Good for Your Brain

Exercise and the Brain

For years many exercise enthusiasts have suspected that exercise positively affects the brain as well as the body. But while it seemed logical that an active lifestyle would help the brain, the scientific evidence was lacking.

Now several biological studies indicate that working out does benefit the brain. The new insights help confirm the notion that exercise has overall health benefits.

The reasons to get moving are greater than you think. It's common knowledge that physical activity generally makes you feel good and helps keep your body lean and in prime working order. Now researchers also are finding biological evidence that exercise benefits specific brain mechanisms.
      
Much of the new research suggests that exercise positively affects the hippocampus, a sea-horse shaped brain structure that is vital for memory and learning.
      
In one recent study, researchers found that adult mice doubled their number of new brain cells in the hippocampus when they had access to running wheels. The fact that the mammalian adult brain can increase its number of brain cells is surprising in itself.

It was once thought that the brain stopped producing new brain cells early in its development. And presumably brain power dimmed as cells died over the years.

But in the past decade, researchers have found definitive evidence that the brain continues to generate new brain cells throughout life, even in humans. Studies indicated that challenging environments, which included a number of components, such as pumped-up learning opportunities, social interactions and physical activities, were key to boosting the growth.

When's the Last Time You Went to the Brain Gym?

Yes, there is an official Brain Gym website, complete with trademarked programs, a course and a book. Check out www.braingym.org for information.

These interesting people claim they are a "worldwide network dedicated to enhancing living and learning through the science of movement. For more than 30 years and in over 80 countries, we have been helping children, adults, and seniors to...

• Learn ANYTHING faster and more easily...
• Perform better at sports...
• Be more focused and organized...
• Start and finish projects with ease...
• Overcome learning challenges...
• Reach new levels of excellence..."

I am curious to find out more of how they go about doing all this. Interesting concept for sure.

Leadership Effectiveness & Exercise

They are starting to prove what we've suspected all along: busy executives are more effective if they take the time to exercise.

A study by the Center for Creative Leadership has measured leadership effectiveness in two groups: those that regularly exercised and those that didn't.

You can read the newsletter article here.

Obviously, top leaders in organizations have little time for taking an hour out of their schedules for workouts. But they are now showing that several bouts of just 10 minute workouts during the day improves functioning.

Since mental clarity, energy and focus are so important to the people running organizations, it makes sense that they build into their daily routines some physical activity. Sometimes they can multi-task their workout, by using treadmill or bicycles for reading, or just reflecting on what really matters.

Here's a great quote I recently found on this very subject, several millenia ago...

"Every now and then go away, even briefly, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer; since to remain constantly at work will cause you to loose power.” Leonardo da Vinci

Of course, he was talking about relaxation, but exercise is a form of that, at least in my mind.

What Can We Learn From a Rat?

Until recently, it was commonly believed that new cell growth in adult brains was impossible. Neuroscientist Fred Cage and associates at the Salk Institute in La Lolla, California, found that adult mice exercising regularly on a running wheel developed twice as many new brain cells in the hippocampus (memory and learning center in the brain) compared with mice in standard cages. 

What about you? Do you have some sort of running wheel in your cage? Well, I mean what kind of aerobic exercise do you do to get your brain cells growing? No, you don't have to take up jogging. In fact, the research says just 15-20 of walking 3 times a week will do the trick.

One would expect that this new cell growth would be in areas of the brain that control motor function. But what surprised researchers is that they discovered neuronal growth in areas that control memory, reasoning, thinking, and learning. They believe exercise augments the flow of oxygen and nutrients to brain tissues and/or releases unique growth factors that promote nerve-cell generation.

Dr. Carl Cotman and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine also showed that exercise increased blood flow to the brain. Older humans who exercised scored higher on tests of cognitive function than non-exercisers.

Dr. Arthur Kramer at the University of Illinois examined the way cardiovascular fitness influences how much the average brain naturally shrinks with age. Participants who were active physically had larger brain volumes than their same-age counterparts.

Other research shows that tennis players, runners and other athletes in their sixties and older have faster mental responses and reaction times than those of non-exercisers of the same age. They outperform others on tests of reasoning, memory, attention, and intelligence.

What are you doing to help your brain out? And you thought that exercise was for people who wanted to look good? Think again! If you want to stay sharp and keep that mind full of good thoughts and ideas, better start treating it right.

Take your brain for a walk!