Podcast Group 3

Group three discussed the effects of exercise on the brain. Exercise has been found to promote better memory, motor function, and mental health, as well as reduce age-related cognitive decline. It increases the generation of new neurons in the brain and enhances neuroplasticity. Regular physical activity also improves cognitive function, memory retention, and attention span. Exercise has been shown to have positive effects on patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. It can also improve working memory and cognitive abilities. However, there is no definitive research on the causation between exercise and memory. Exercise also has positive effects on cognition, improving attention, executive control, and information processing. The type and intensity of exercise can have different effects on the brain. Exercise also has a significant impact on mood, releasing neurotransmitters that contribute to happiness and reduce stress. Overall, regular exercise has a positive influence on t Hi there. This is group three with Veronica, Allie, Giselle, and Silver. Today, our group will be focusing on the effects of exercise and physical activity on the brain. We will dive into the benefits of exercise in promoting better memory, motor function, mental health, and its effects on age-related cognitive decline. From the process of generating new neurological connections to improving an individual's overall well-being, the brain is extremely fascinating regarding overall bodily functions and control. Let's get started with Veronica's topic on the impact of exercise on brain longevity. Making exercise a habit within your daily life is guaranteed to benefit many aspects of your health. These benefits are commonly noted as strengthening bones and muscles, improving sleep, reducing the risk of disease, as well as helping to manage weight. In recent studies, routine exercise has been identified as a way to improve brain health, as well as reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline and neurodegeneration, according to an article from the National Center for Biotechnical Information. Regular physical activity and exercise protect the brain function from adverse effects of aging and enhance cognitive function over time. It has been revealed that exercise in healthy adults brings behavioral benefits such as memory retention, processing speed, and prolonged attention span. Exercise increases hippocampal neurogenesis, which is the generation of new neurons in the brain, therefore increasing the ability to maintain neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity refers to the nervous system's capacity to modify itself in response to experience and injury, therefore increasing the brain's longevity and decreasing the rate of age-related cognitive decline. As seen through animal studies, there exists a positive relationship between angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, and neurogenesis. These positive influences of exercise in the brain reveal physical activity and exercise as a method to prevent cognitive dysfunction. Neuroimaging studies indicate that elderly populations with high aerobic fitness have larger hippocampal volumes and better scores in cognition tasks. Short and long-term exercise have been seen to improve memory function and prevent hippocampal impairments in those with Alzheimer's disease because of the brain's maintained ability to generate new neurons upon stimulation. Several clinical studies have also reported the improved motor function and cognitive performance in patients with Parkinson's disease who exercise regularly. These findings help to recommend exercise as a noninvasive therapeutic intervention to slow the decline in neurodegenerative disorders. Current research suggests evidence that exercise-induced improvements in cognitive functions are correlated with neurogenesis and plasticity overall, positively impacting the aged brain with neurodegenerative disorders. Next up, let's hear Allie talk about exercise's impact on memory performance. As adults age, cognitive decline and memory impairment threaten their independence and quality of life. A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in memory preservation will help the development of pharmaceutical drugs for individuals who are limited in their ability to be physically active and work out. Exercise has been known to increase one's lifespan by maintaining overall body health, specifically improving the cardiovascular system and the nervous system. Exercise training as a healthy lifestyle factor reduces the likelihood of developing dementia and slows down the progress of cognitive decline both in normal aging adults and individuals with dementia. It has been reported that engagement in exercise training by 5% over 5 years reduces the percentage of adults with dementia by 11%. Exercise training is defined as planned, structured, and repetitive movements, so therefore the increase in intensity would have to be more significant than simply engaging in physical activity. There is a lot of evidence indicating that regular exercise training slows down the progress of cognitive decline and maintains the brain's cognitive ability, specifically memory. However, there are inconsistencies in the literature due to the variety in type and timing of the cognitive tests, subject characteristics, and exercise protocols. Some researchers believe that working memory, which is the ability to retain information and use it to complete tasks, is improved by chronic exercise, which is working out consistently every day, but not with acute exercise. Acute exercise is defined as a single session of exercise. These findings have been in elderly individuals, elite soccer players, and in Alzheimer's disease patients. The research done has shown that healthy adults should engage in exercise training for 16 to 24 weeks at least up to three times per week with 30 minutes per session in order to achieve better outcomes on working memory. However, patients with dementia confirm that both strength, aerobic, and resistance training programs over four weeks can bring about significant cognitive benefits. Overall, regular chronic exercise training is more effective for substantial memory facilitation. The intensity of exercise is also an important factor on memory performance and retention. It is reported that acute, moderate-intensity exercise prior to the initial learning of new information enhances short- and long-term memories in healthy participants. However, the same study found that high-intensity acute exercise impairs working and episodic memories. The declines in working memory, verbal memory, and attention have been shown to be short-term deficits following intense activity in adults. From what I have gathered from researching the impacts of physical activity and exercise on memory, it appears that exercise has a positive correlational relationship with memory performance and working memory, but there is no research definitive enough to prove causation between the two variables that can be generalized to all populations. Thank you, Ali, for sharing the importance of exercise on memory. Now I'll get started on talking about the effects of exercise on cognition. After reviewing the article and examination on the mechanisms underlying the effects of physical activity on brain and cognition, physical activity has proven to have a positive influence on the brain's health and cognitive function. Cardiovascular fitness can be connected to changes in mechanisms such as cerebral blood flow, neuropathic factors, neuroarchitecture, as well as neurotransmitter systems, and has been linked to improved cognitive function. There has also been associated factors that have been linked to exercise, such as improved mood, arousal, and self-perception that have been known to be influenced with improved cognitive function. When diving deeper into the positive intervenes of physical activity and association with functional changes that have had neuropathical impact on activities of daily living, these benefits include greater efficiency in information processing, enhancement in attention capacity, better performance on tasks that demand visual and spatial processing, benefits for executive control processes, as well as greater psychomotor speed. When viewing specific cognitive and behavioral levels as a result of increased physical activity, it has been shown to affect cognition in aspects of arousal, self-sufficiency, mood, or depression. A positive influence has been linked with cognition. Researchers have proposed that exercise as a result of increased cardiovascular fitness has led to benefits in tasks dealing with the frontal lobe, known as substantial frontal lobe dependent executive control component, which is the area that exhibits the largest age-related decline. There is substantial improvement of information processing speed, having the potential impact on greater cognitive function, leading to positive effects on functional status and quality of life. The type of exercise has also played a factor in its potential to induce specific effects on the brain and its perceptual and cognitive abilities. Through research, it is reasonable to hypothesize that exercise exerts large cognitive demands, having a larger impact on cognition. As of recent, there have been new advances of sophisticated neuroimaging techniques, and several of these studies have been able to correlate the learning of different skills and neuroplasticity in human adults. Brain matter volume has also been reported for motor, auditory, and visuospatial brain regions due to neuromotor exercise maintaining an important aerobic component, which is an influence on the brain and cognitive functioning. There have been both animal and human studies that support several psychological and psychosocial mechanisms that underlie the relationship between both physical activity and cognitive function, specifically cardiovascular and fitness. Its implications indicate that physical activity in most studies has a positive effect in cognition in adults. Now switching gears to silver to talk about the effects of exercise on your mood. Thanks, Giselle. According to my findings, physical activity has a profound impact on mood, positively influencing mental well-being in various ways. Engaging in regular physical activity has been consistently linked to the release of neurotransmitters such as endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine, which are known to contribute to feelings of happiness and reduce stress. Additionally, exercise promotes the production of neurotrophic factors, which support the growth and maintenance of neurons fostering cognitive function and emotional resilience. Specifically, with respect to association between physical activity and mood, evidence indicates that moderate exercise improves mood, while intense exercise leads to its deterioration, and that these mood variations are more related to the construct of depression than the construct of anxiety. According to a Harvard study, there was a 26% decrease in odds for becoming depressed for each major increase in objectively measured physical activity. However, the effects of regular physical activity on mood have been mainly studied using aerobic exercise, but evidence indicates that anaerobic physical activity, such as bodybuilding or flexibility training, can also reduce depressive symptoms. In contrast, no consensus exists with respect to anxiety symptoms, with some authors reporting that anaerobic activity is as effective as aerobic activity, while others do not. Although physical activity is mainly beneficial to mood, most athletes experience the mood deterioration observed without impairment in the sport. However, since in order to reach the goal of improved performance, the athlete has to reach his or her limits of physical capacity, and since the balance between desirable and excessive training is quite tenuous, the second condition, excessive training, is not a rare event. In this case, the athlete starts to present more evident problems, such as sleep disturbances, loss of weight, and appetite. And reduced, increased irritability and heavy and painful muscular structure. The incidence of this condition among athletes is estimated to be 7 to 20 percent per training season, and this prevalence is believed to be even higher in the case of endurance sports among elite athletes during their extensive training program. This shows that each person needs their own adequate amount of physical activity catered to their own body's needs in order to get the benefits of mood. Wow, Silver, that was very interesting. Now you have me wondering, can too much exercise negatively impact your mood? That's a great question. For some individuals, physical activity becomes an obsession, resulting in an exaggerated preoccupation with exercise and excessive training. This could lead to muscle dysmorphia, the use of anabolic steroids, and intense mood disturbances. Interesting. So what do you consider for yourself the sweet spot for training? I'm on the cheer team, so I practice three times a week and team with twice a week. However, I work out by myself two more days a week on top of that, and I consider that kind of my sweet spot for physical activity. However, everyone is different, and listening to your body and brain is very important in the adequate level of PA someone should have. Well, going back to you, Ali, with finals and everything coming up, does exercising more mean I'll remember more and retain more information? While it's still necessary to study, engaging in acute moderate intensity exercise before sitting down to study will help you with memory retention and hopefully increase your performance on your exams. Well, that's it for today. Thank you for joining us as we discuss the effects of physical activity and exercise on the brain. Hopefully this has inspired you to go get active today. Signing off, this is Veronica, Giselle, Silver, and Ali.