Fabre and colleagues, in 1999, randomly assigned subjects to 4 groups: an aerobic training group (walking or running for 2 h per week for 2 months), a memory training group (one 90 min session a week for 2 months), a combined aerobic and mental training group, or a control group (no training).
Results showed that compared to the control group, the memory performance of all 3 groups increased. The combined group showed greater increase than the other 2 training groups.
This suggests that the effects of cognitive and fitness training may be additive. However this study involved only 8 participants per group! More research is clearly needed before anything can be safely concluded.
In the meantime let’s play it safe and combine fitness and cognitive training for better brain health.
References
Colcombe, S. & Kramer, A. F. (2003). Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Science, 14(2), 125–130.
Colcombe, S. J., Erickson, K. I., Scalf, P. E., Kim, J. S., Prakash, R., McAuley, E., Elavsky, S., Marquez, D. X., Hu, L., & Kramer, A. F. (2006). Aerobic exercise training increases brain volume in aging humans. Journal of Gerontology, 61A(11), 1166–1170.
Fabre, C., Msse-Biron, J., Chamari, K., Varray, A., Mucci, P., & Prefaut, C. (1999). Evaluation of quality of life in elderly healthy subjects after aerobic and/or mental training. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 28, 9–22.
Heyn P.; Abreu B. C.; Ottenbacher K. J. (2004). The effects of exercise training on elderly persons with cognitive impairment and dementia: a meta-analysis. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 85(10), 1694–704.
Laurin, D., Verreault, R., Lindsay, J., MacPherson, K., & Rockwood, K. (2001). Physical activity and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly persons. Archives of Neurology, 58(3), 498–504.
— Dr. Pascale Michelon helped research and write The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: How to Optimize Brain Health and Performance at Any Age. She has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and is a Research Scientist at Washington University in Saint Louis, in the Psychology Department. She conducted several research projects to understand how the brain makes use of visual information and memorizes facts.
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Hello.
By doing a little reading on your great website I understand there is a great emphasis on how to keep the brain sharp and I am must admit many great tips. However in my opinion physical exercise appears to give more value to better brain health in general than doing mental exercises. This is because when doing mental exercise it is virtually minimal to see a positive transfer affect other than the task you training in.
With physical exercise there is general transfer effect and until proved otherwise there should be more emphasis on physical exercise than mental stimulation.
Hello Ozee,
Thanks for the comment. Given the existing evidence, we have decided in favor of a multi-pronged approach, that highlights the benefits of physical exercise, mental stimulation, stress management and good nutrition.
This approach is consistent with excellent recent public health efforts led by the Alzheimer’s Association and the Dana Foundation For Brain Initiatives, both of which are grounded on four close-to-identical pillars or factors.
Why a multi-pronged approach vs. a “one size fits all”?
Because different bodies of research suggest the benefits of different approaches, and there is few research contrasting their interactions directly (as Dr. Michelon points above).
For example, advocating that “there should be more emphasis on physical exercise than mental stimulation” would ignore a large body of Cognitive Reserve research on the benefits of lifelong education and mental stimulation to reduce the probability of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms, very solid large-scale clinical trials such as ACTIVE, and many controlled trials that show the benefits of well-directed mental exercise like meditation, cognitive therapy, computerized cognitive training, for specific populations and goals.
Another example on why a “one size fits all” is not the best approach: the benefits of physical exercise are mostly based on moving people from Sedentary to Slightly Active. Now, there are many people who are not Sedentary, who may benefit from other approaches.
So, I would turn the tables, and say that, right now, most brain health public education efforts are based on a multi-pronged approach and if anyone wants to focus exclusively on one factor for everyone and everything will have to prove a more solid case than the one availabe on existing data today.
Mental exercises that would have a positive transfer effect to other mental tasks
are exercises in attention and concentration.
Meditation is the simplest example of this.
Does physical exercise, in humans, contribute to neurogenesis? If so, would cognitive exercise then nurture the new cells creating brain volume?
Scott, very well put, that seems to be the case.
Now, it is perhaps not “volume” that grows (our skulls limit overall volume) but density and weight, overall and in specific brain structures. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
Very well written! I’ll keep these in mind.
Perfect explanation and good to read and getting good tips like this will help me in my routine of exercises..It will be more effective with the help of Aerobic dance too..
As a Physical Educator, it’s great to have this information available. Do you have any research similar to Colcombe and Kramer that supports similar findings in children and youth?
Please keep up the great work.
The research gathered by Dr. Ratey (Spark, A User’s Guide to The Brain, Dr. John Medina (Brain Rules) and Dr. Carla Hannaford (Smart Moves) among others gives physical educators a wealth of evidence to present to school administrations about the value of quality physical education. It should also motivate the entire physical education community to take a hard look at current curriculum and the need to make changes that brings it more in line with students long term needs, social, emotional, physical and cognitive.