• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

What is the combined effect of physical and mental training?

April 18, 2013 by Dr. Pascale Michelon

exercisePhys­i­cal exer­cise and men­tal exer­cise are both ben­e­fi­cial for the brain. Each can improve brain func­tions and decrease risks of cog­ni­tive decline over time. This rais­es the ques­tion of their com­par­a­tive and com­bined effects: Is one bet­ter than the oth­er? Are their ben­e­fits addi­tive (1 + 1 =2) or per­haps even syn­er­gis­tic (1 + 1 =3)?

A recent study sug­gests that the ben­e­fits of each are sig­nif­i­cant and rough­ly equiv­a­lent but nei­ther clear­ly addi­tive not syn­er­gis­tic (mean­ing, that aer­o­bic exer­cise did­n’t make men­tal exer­cise more effec­tive, or vice ver­sa). The study involved 126 old­er adults (mean age of 73.4) with cog­ni­tive com­plaints, that is who felt their mem­o­ry and think­ing skills had declined in the recent past. Par­tic­i­pants were divid­ed onto 4 groups:

  1. Com­put­er­ized brain train­ing (to enhance visu­al and audi­to­ry pro­cess­ing speed) + aer­o­bic exercise
  2. Watch­ing edu­ca­tion­al DVD + aer­o­bic exercise
  3. Com­put­er­ized brain train­ing + stretch­ing and toning
  4. Watch­ing edu­ca­tion­al DVD + stretch­ing and toning

As you can see all groups par­tic­i­pat­ed in a men­tal activ­i­ty (1 hour three times a week) and a phys­i­cal activ­i­ty (1 hour three times a week). What dif­fered between them was the type of activ­i­ty per­formed: Watch­ing edu­ca­tion­al DVD was a con­trol group for brain train­ing, that is it was not expect­ed to bring ben­e­fits (or much less). In the same way, stretch­ing and ton­ing was a con­trol for aer­o­bic exercise.

A glob­al cog­ni­tive score was obtained before and after the inter­ven­tion for all par­tic­i­pants, using tests of ver­bal learn­ing and mem­o­ry, ver­bal flu­en­cy, pro­cess­ing speed, exec­u­tive and visu­ospa­tial func­tions and men­tal flex­i­bil­i­ty. The four groups had sim­i­lar scores to start with.

Results showed that all 4 groups glob­al cog­ni­tive func­tion­ing improved after the 12 weeks inter­ven­tion. The com­par­isons between groups 1 and 3 and between groups 2 and 4 showed that both men­tal exer­cise and phys­i­cal exer­cise brought sig­nif­i­cant and rough­ly equiv­a­lent cog­ni­tive benefits.

Sur­pris­ing­ly the com­par­isons between groups 1 and 2 and between groups 3 and 4 (actu­al inter­ven­tions ver­sus con­trol groups) showed that the con­trol activ­i­ties (watch­ing DVD and stretch­ing and ton­ing) trig­gered sim­i­lar ben­e­fits as the inter­ven­tion activ­i­ties (brain train­ing and aer­o­bic). This is not what pre­vi­ous stud­ies have shown: often, brain train­ing or aer­o­bic train­ing bring larg­er ben­e­fits com­pared to mere­ly watch­ing edu­ca­tion­al DVD or stretch­ing and ton­ing. Fur­ther analy­sis on a small sub­group of par­tic­i­pants who had the most mem­o­ry dif­fi­cul­ties showed the usu­al extra ben­e­fit of brain train­ing over edu­ca­tion­al videos.

The authors offer two pos­si­ble expla­na­tions for the results. One is that all the par­tic­i­pants got bet­ter at the cog­ni­tive tests because of a prac­tice effect (remem­ber that they were test­ed before and after the study). Anoth­er expla­na­tion is that for this pop­u­la­tion, that is for old­er adults with mem­o­ry com­plaints, it is not so much the type of activ­i­ty that mat­ters but the mere fact of being active.

A few oth­er stud­ies have also tried to com­pare the ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal and men­tal activity.

A 2006 study con­duct­ed with 375 healthy old­er adults between the ages of 75 and 93 com­pared the effects of men­tal, phys­i­cal and com­bined train­ing. The brain train­ing was done using paper and pen­cil tasks. The phys­i­cal train­ing tar­get­ed bal­ance, flex­i­bil­i­ty and motor coor­di­na­tion. Results showed cog­ni­tive gains only fol­low­ing men­tal and com­bined training.

A small­er 2013 study with 122 healthy adults over 80 com­pared 4 groups: brain train­ing (using Cog­niFit com­put­er­ized exer­cis­es 3 times a week for 16 weeks), phys­i­cal train­ing (aer­o­bic exer­cise 3 times a week for 16 weeks), com­bined train­ing, and con­trol (book read­ing at home and 1 hour dis­cus­sions once a week). Cog­ni­tive gains were observed only fol­low­ing men­tal and com­bined train­ing. The author con­cludes that either the phys­i­cal train­ing inter­ven­tion was not long enough or too mild to yield ben­e­fits or that cog­ni­tive train­ing is the main agent for cog­ni­tive changes.

In con­clu­sion, it is too ear­ly to tell how to best com­bine brain train­ing and phys­i­cal train­ing, but the bulk of the research so far strong­ly sug­gests that they both have mea­sur­able pos­i­tive effects on cog­ni­tion and brain health. Aer­o­bic phys­i­cal exer­cise can improve atten­tion and exec­u­tive func­tions as well as reverse brain vol­ume loss. It usu­al­ly takes 6 months or so to see such ben­e­fits. Brain train­ing can bring steady and sus­tained cog­ni­tive gains after 10 to 15 hours of train­ing, although the gains do not gen­er­al­ly trans­fer to many untrained tasks. And let’s remem­ber that pop­u­la­tion stud­ies have also repeat­ed­ly shown that peo­ple who par­tic­i­pate in men­tal­ly stim­u­lat­ing leisure activ­i­ties through­out their life have health­i­er brains, high­er cog­ni­tive func­tion­ing and low­er risks of demen­tia over the long run.

Sim­ply put, the more we exer­cise our bod­ies and our minds, the better.

Ref­er­ences:

  • Barnes, D.  E., et al. (2013). The Men­tal Activ­i­ty and eXer­cise (MAX) Tri­al:  A Ran­dom­ized Con­trolled Tri­al to Enhance Cog­ni­tive Func­tion in Old­er Adults. JAMA Inter­nal Med­i­cine, 1–8. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.189.
  • Oswald, W., et al. (2006). Dif­fer­en­tial effects of sin­gle ver­sus com­bined cog­ni­tive and phys­i­cal train­ing with old­er adults: The SimA study in a5-year per­spec­tive. Euro­pean Jour­nal of Age­ing, 3, 179–192.
  • Shatil, E. (2013). Does com­bined cog­ni­tive train­ing and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty train­ing enhance cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties more than either alone? Fron­tiers in Aging Neu­ro­science, doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2013.00008.

pascale michelon— This arti­cle was writ­ten by Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, PhD. Dr. Mich­e­lon was a Research Sci­en­tist at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity in Saint Louis, where she is now an Adjunct Fac­ulty. She teach­es mem­ory work­shops in the St Louis area, and con­tributes to SharpBrains.com as the Research Man­ager for The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness.

Relat­ed arti­cles:

  • Alzheimer’s Dis­ease pop­u­la­tion to triple: We need smarter research, pub­lic health ini­tia­tives and lifestyles
  • Build Your Cog­ni­tive Reserve: An Inter­view with Dr. Yaakov Stern
  • Brain Plas­tic­ity: How learn­ing changes your brain
  • Does cog­ni­tive train­ing work? (For Whom? For What?)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: aerobic-exercise, Brain-Training, cognifit, cognition, cognitive-decline, Cognitive-Training, computerized brain training, mental-exercise, Physical-Exercise

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 35,219 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy