It\u2019s a tried and true method for improving your focus: taking a break for a brisk walk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But while research has shown that short bouts of exercise benefit your brain, it\u2019s unclear exactly how.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New findings from Northeastern University suggests the system regulating the body\u2019s fight-or-flight response might be an answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor more than two decades, we\u2019ve shown that there\u2019s a beneficial relationship of a single dose of exercise on cognition,\u201d said Charles Hillman<\/a>, Michele and Anthony Manganaro distinguished professor and director of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Health<\/a> at Northeastern. \u201cThis is the first attempt to directly try and understand a mechanism that underpins that relationship in children.\u201d<\/p>\n The research provides more evidence that children need opportunities for physical activities to optimize their physical and mental health. Understanding a mechanism by which exercise and the brain are connected also enables further exploration and understanding of how to maximize benefits to cognitive and brain health.<\/p>\n Scientists have long connected regular exercise with beneficial changes in brain function and structure<\/a> including improved growth and survival of the neurons which receive, transmit and process information.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hillman, who is in the departments of psychology and physical therapy, movement and rehabilitation sciences, and his lab has also found that short bouts of exercise \u2013 or \u2018acute exercise\u2019 \u2013 make you feel more focused and improves cognition<\/a>. But you\u2019re not really going to alter your brain structure after only 20 minutes, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, what\u2019s giving your brain that added boost?\u00a0<\/p>\n Hillman and colleagues Lauren Raine, an assistant professor in the institute and in the department of physical therapy, movement and rehabilitation sciences at Northeastern, and psychology postdoctoral researcher Christina Bertrand hypothesized that the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system, or LC-NE system, might play a role. Originating in the brain stem, the LC-NE system is the primary source of norepinephrine, a chemical behind the fight-or-flight response, for the central nervous system.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previous research has suggested a link between acute exercise and changes in salivary alpha-amylase<\/a> (sAA), an enzyme that, among other functions, indicates the brain is producing norepinephrine. SAA and the stress hormone cortisol have also been related to academic performance in children<\/a>. Finally, the LC-NE system has been connected to attention<\/a>, the basic cognitive function that enables people to focus.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a relaxed state you cast attention broadly,\u201d Hillman explained. \u201cBut when something captures your attention and alerts you, you focus in \u2013 like in the case of fight or flight \u2013 and you determine whether or not it\u2019s worth your time and attention.\u201d<\/p>\n But no one had taken these separate \u201cpieces\u201d or \u201cthreads,\u201d as Hillman called them, and connected them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had all these pieces coming together, but not all the pieces tied together,\u201d Hillman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, to find out whether sAA could be the connection between acute exercise and improved brain function, researchers measured the brain activity and sAA of 104 children ages 9 and 10 before, during and after they completed a variety of interventions and a test. The interventions included an active stress test of a brisk 20-minute walk on a treadmill; a \u201cpsychosocial\u201d stress test that included mathematics and public speaking; and the control condition was seated rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n A cognitive test in the form of computer tests was to evaluate the subjects\u2019 ability to suppress a response or actively ignore irrelevant distractions.<\/p>\n Brain activity was measured with an electric encephalogram cap, specialized headgear embedded with sensors that record electrical activity in the brain, before and after each of the interventions, while researchers collected sAA via \u201cpassive drool,\u201d as Raine called it, seven times at each intervention.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Picks The researchers found that sAA increased slightly immediately after exercise then decreased below initial levels compared with when children were resting or completing the psychosocial stress test.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes sense that something like exercise would rev up that fast flight-or-flight response system,\u201d Bertrand said. \u201cBut what we see following exercise is a recalibrating of that stress system back to where the children started, or maybe even settled down even more.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the research, post-exercise changes in sAA made children more consistent and slightly more accurate in their cognitive tests, indicating more consistent focus.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cortisol, meanwhile, increased only in response to the psychosocial stressor \u2013 not exercise, according to the research. Higher levels of the stress hormone, however, made the children less reactive to changes in sAA and its cognitive benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you come with lower cortisol, are less stressed, you\u2019re showing greater modulation of brain function,\u201d Hillman said. \u201cBut if your system is already stressed, stressing it more isn\u2019t necessarily helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n Northeastern Global News, Sign up for NGN\u2019s daily newsletter for news, discovery and analysis from around the world.<\/p>\n Hillman said the research did not involve adults, but he doesn\u2019t see any reason why the LC-NE system would be significantly different in older individuals than in children.<\/p>\n Which gets to the ultimate question.\u00a0<\/p>\n You have 20 minutes until a big test: do you take a walk or study?<\/p>\n \u201cThese data may suggest that going out and exercising beforehand would probably be helpful, assuming you had the information already learned,\u201d Hillman said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it would also then suggest\u2026that if you weren\u2019t prepared and you were already highly stressed, walking might not help you,\u201d Raine, who is also in the department of medical sciences at Northeastern, continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n And before you get your hopes up too high, Bertrand added a critical caveat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could say it could help you attend to the task at hand and focus better,\u201d Bertrand said. \u201cWe can\u2019t promise a better test score.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a tried and true method for improving your focus: taking a break for a brisk walk.\u00a0 But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[26819,4994,151,9693,674,337,97,1728],"class_list":["post-899329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-attention","tag-brain-health","tag-children","tag-cognition","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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