Brain Function

Research has proven that physical activity improves cognitive function and can also improve brain function throughout a lifespan. Moreover, staying physically active has so many benefits as well. For example, doing exercise and fitness activities help build cells and natural pathways to help reduce changes in memory loss or dementia. Also, it has so many health benefits including long-term improvements to the cognitive function as the young adult reaching mid

Cavanaugh and Blanchard-Fields (2015) state that there is research showing how brain plasticity can be enhanced through aerobic exercise (p.51). It is important that adults be active in their lives. A 30-minute walk or some type of physical activity will benefit them as the age. The text mentions a study done by Erickson and his colleagues in 2009 where they studied the effect of aerobic exercise on the hippocampus. They found that due to aerobic exercise it produced greater volume in the hippocampus. This is significant because the hippocampus is the part of the brain that is responsible for memory, emotions, and spatial functioning. The body does not only need physical activities to produce healthier cognitive functioning but also nutrients. The text identifies three nutrient biomarker patterns that are significant on the aging brain. These nutrients are vitamin B, C,D, and E, omega-3, and trans fat. the foods that belong to these nutrients are beneficial to the brain. Older adults should make an effort to include these nutrients into their diets. positive impacts these nutrients make are better cognitive functioning and greater brain

In the book Spark, written by Dr. John J. Ratey, he discusses how exercise can positively affect how your brain works. He provides studies and personal experiences to support the claims he makes. I always knew exercise would improve your life but never could have imagined how much it can affect your brain health as well. The chapter I thought spoke the most to me was chapter two, Learning: Grow Your Brain Cells.

Dementia or Neurocognitive disorder is a group of symptoms that affects memory, thinking and social abilities enough to interfere with a person’s normal daily functioning. It also includes emotional and language problems, and a decrease in motivation.

There is ample evidence to demonstrate that through the normal ageing process alterations to the brain in structure and function are directly related to cognitive changes (Glisky, 2007). With an increasing ageing population strategies for prevention of disease and age related cognitive decline are necessary to improve quality of life and reduce the associated healthcare costs (Australian Government Productivity Commission [AGPC], 2013). Physical exercise is known to be crucial in maintaining physiological health; it can also be used as a means of neuroprotection and assist in modifiable risk factors for improved brain health and subsequent cognitive function. This review will critically analyse current research into the effects of exercise

The human brain is constantly changing where many new neurons are formed while others neurons die and new synapses are created while other synapses are removed (Spalding et al., 2013). Some dendrites will withdraw while other dendrites continue branching (Killgore et al., 2013). The processes driving the reshaping of the brain are neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s lifelong ability to rewire neural connections to compensate for diseases and injuries or in response to changes in the environment, whereas neurogenesis is the ability to create new neurons and neural connections. This dynamic process of remodeling gray matter is determined mainly by a person’s genetics and can slow down due to age (Denes, 2016). However, recent scientific evidence demonstrates other non-genetic factors that can significantly improve the development of the brain and slow down neurodegeneration (Kays et al., 2012). Physical exercise has always been linked to a person’s physical health, but many recent scientific studies shows physical exercise can also keep a person’s brain sharp. Exercise affects the brain in numerous ways by creating a flourishing environment for brain growth, aiding the release of numerous hormones, and fighting against depression, stress, and anxiety.

For years, my father, a high school basketball and track and field coach has been telling my sister and I that athletes are superior students to non-athlete students. After reading this chapter in Ratey’s book, I believe that he may have been right. When Ratey compares the human brain to a muscle, the concept that exercise results in enhanced brain functioning makes sense. The quote from the text, “by pushing our bodies we push our brains” helped me realize that the two are not separate. Our brain, or our cognition is not a separate entity from our physicality.

Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. These processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and include language, imagination, awareness, and planning. It is believed to be that people acquire their knowledge through their observations of the world around them. The approach to cognition is referred to as rationalism. B.F. Skinner is one of the main theorists who had advocated this point of view towards how people learn and think. Basically, only observable behavior should be considered cognitions, emotions, and moods are far too subjective. Cognition involves not only the things that go on inside our

The present paper reviews the benefits of exercise on executive functions in older adults and discusses a potential mechanism through which exercise may change the way the brain processes information for better cognitive outcomes. Specifically, older adults who are more physically active demonstrate a shift toward local neural processing that is associated with better executive functions. We discuss the use of neural complexity as a sensitive measure of the neural network plasticity that is enhanced through exercise. We conclude by highlighting the future work needed to improve exercise prescriptions that help older adults maintain their cognitive and physical functions for longer into their lifespan.

The capacity to mentally process, reason, perceive, plan, understand and learn is called cognition. It is important as it help us understand the world and people around us. It is the ability to interpret and comprehend sensory information by transforming, storing and recovering the said data ( (Neisser, 1976). Many studies have been conducted to explore the different factors that could decrease or increase cognition. Some of the factors include sleep, stress, socioeconomic status (SES), and physical activity.

Ratey, J. J. & Hagerman, E. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Cognition refers to the process in which people are able to acquire and comprehend various forms of knowledge through their thoughts, experiences and use of their sensory systems. This process of cognition is in itself takes various processes. It must be said as early as now that the ultimate result of cognition processes is to result in one learning. The cognitive processes are started by one having to pay attention. This

Though the generation of functional neurons in the adult brain is tightly linked with brain plasticity and cognitive functions, the exact cellular and molecular cues governing neurogenesis in distinctive neural stem cell niches are not completely known. To note, the proliferative and/or differentiation properties of NSCs are known to be impaired in the ageing and neurodegenerative brains. However, the neurogenic potential of NSCs can positively be modulated by physical exercise, enriched environments, hormones, growth factors and pharmacological agents. While, NSC derived neurogensis represents the regenerative capacity of the adult brain, stimulating the NSCs can compensate neuronal dysfunction and neurodegeneration. Thus, the motor and cognitive

The function of the brain is interesting with nervous and tissues. You may think that the brain cannot be override to Rationalize but perhaps Leon Festinger with theory of Cognitive Dissonance can coherently explain societies daunting truth of rationalization.

The Erikson et al. article supports the idea that physical exercise helps the brain by improving memory and the size of the hippocampus. Erikson and his colleagues suggested in their study that physical exercise increases the retention of information and improves learning capabilities. The way they measured this was by studying the increased or decreased size of the subject’s hippocampus and levels of BDNF. The control group in this experiment completed stretching/toning exercises while the experimental group did aerobic exercise; the experimental group ended up having a larger hippocampus volume than when starting out, as well as higher levels of BDNF; the