This practice could make your brain four years younger

Time passes and we (unfortunately) all get older. Over the years, our cognitive functions suffer. Our attention, memory and executive functions become less and less efficient.

Although it is not yet possible to completely reverse the process to stop aging and never see us lose our faculties, there are ways to slow it down. In a new study published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicinea team of researchers has shown that regular physical activity can have short-term beneficial effects on cognitive health, equivalent to to reversing four years of cognitive aging.

Immediate progress

Researchers asked participants in a study on diet and dementia risk, representing a diverse sample of 204 middle-aged adults, to record themselves five times a day for nine days, on a phone app. At each visit, participants answered a brief questionnaire about their mood, food choices and physical activity in the three and a half hours preceding the questionnaire.

They also had to carry out some brief brain games. These games were performance-based cognitive assessments lasting approximately one minute each. This allowed the researchers to assess the mental speed and short-term memory of the participants.

Rejuvenate your cognitive functions by four years

The researchers found that results on the cognitive processing speed measure improved in controls when participants reported being physically active in the period before the survey. These speed improvements could be observed regardless of whether the activity was light or moderate to vigorous intensity. So, a short walk or play time with the children can have an immediate impact. “This led us to conclude that movement, whether in the form of intentional exercise or part of a daily routine, was the essential ingredient for achieving this benefit,” writes Jonathan G. Hakun, author on the study, in an article for The Conversation.

Although research regularly extols the merits of long-term physical activity, especially at moderate to high intensity, it more rarely focuses on the direct effects of even low-intensity activity. The researchers would like to note that these effects are not necessarily long-term. “It is not yet clear whether these short-term benefits accumulate over time to lead to long-term improvements in brain health and reduced risk of dementia,” acknowledges Jonathan G. Hakun. Research work is underway within our team to better understand these associations over broader time scales. »