Brain Points

Yesterday Arthur Kramer came in to talk about the effects of exercise on the brain. He started off the lecture by explaining the mass amounts of research and funds he is doing, which would make anyone jealous yet envious. He then proceeded to tell us about his famous research involving exercise and its effects on the brain. His studies looked at people of all age groups ranging from the elderly to the very young and they all seemed to have a positive correlation between exercise and intelligence. In the elderly they examined aspects of white matter and grey matter in order to determine the individual intelligence of the elderly. They measured the level of their crystallized intelligence,  and fluid intelligence, the capacity to think logically and solve problems.  Although there is not much of a known reason behind the fact, and there are a lot of correlational reasoning behind different aspects of physical activity, it showed that both forms of intelligence improved over a six month period of those who walked more often then those who did not. Arthur Kramer also examined the benefits of exercise of those suffering from degenerative brain disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's. They found that in every disease that they studied, they showed improvement in cognitive activity after a period of exercise after a year.
The next series of tests he talked about involved young children. Their set up to test the children was impressive in the aspect that it analyzed logical reasoning in a fun way that kids would enjoy. In order to do this, the neuroscientists  set up three screens set up around a self moving treadmill. The screens then projected three different angles of a street, a frontal view, right view, and left view. the children were then instructed to try to make it across the street without getting hit by a "car". They found that the children who exercised more often were more likely to make it across the street. It wasn't because the more athletic children were faster runners. The children generally made better decisions when they had the health benefits of exercise. Although there are many aspects to the human brain that we do not understand yet,  there should not be any denial that exercise helps cognitive functioning for all individuals.