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Study Finds You Can Grow Brain Cells Through Exercise

Posted by yaelk on from the how-to-get-smarter dept.

phantomfive writes: Researchers have discovered that aerobic exercise may increase neurogenesis. Based on the results, rats that were put on a treadmill grew more brain cells than rats that didn't. Resistance training seemed to have no effect. This is significant, because the neuron reserve of the hippocampus can be increased, thus preconditions for learning for humans could be improved simply through aerobic exercise.

8 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Nerve connections for muscles by peon_a-z,A-Z,0-9$_+! · · Score: 5, Informative

    Brain cells and associated nerve connections are necessary to operate muscles. If you exercise more, or perhaps even hone a skill associated with exercise (playing basketball or tennis perhaps), then you would also expect the brain to grow connections associated with these activities.

    So yes, the brain grows. Does it make a person smarter? Not necessarily, it makes a person more able to move that muscle with finer control.

    Also, this seems to be a repeat of the same study in the past, though its first occurrence on /.?:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/10/study-people-who-exercise-have-larger-brains-later-in-life/264017/

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2013/10/13/how-exercise-makes-your-brain-grow/#18d2c88248c1

    1. Re:Nerve connections for muscles by advocate_one · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Brain cells and associated nerve connections are necessary to operate muscles. If you exercise more, or perhaps even hone a skill associated with exercise (playing basketball or tennis perhaps), then you would also expect the brain to grow connections associated with these activities.

      so why then doesn't this work for 'resistance' training? After all, you are exercising muscles.

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    2. Re:Nerve connections for muscles by gymell · · Score: 4, Informative

      Resistance training leads to change in the nervous system, but possibly not in the brain. Relevant research

      The studies you mention are from 1988 and 2006, respectively. A more recent study from 2015 concludes otherwise:

      This study provides the first evidence for strength training-related changes in white matter and putamen in the healthy adult brain.

  2. Well.. by neo8750 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm screwed then. *gets more settled in his seat*

  3. So... by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, they're saying I can get smarter by logging off of slashdot and going outside?

    1. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      If you just exercised more, you would already know the answer to your question.

  4. Well... by EmeraldBot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is very interesting, but part of the article mentions that some rats were more predispositioned to benefit than others through genetics. If that applies to humans as well, that means this running will benefit only some of us with an increased hippocampus size. However, one should be getting aerobic exercise anyway, although many of us don't; the health benefits are well worth it.

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
  5. Re:Alzheimers? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is some evidence that exercise benefits people with Alzheimer's, but the how and why is not well understood.