Scientists at the University of California has been breeding two sets of mice; ones who are physically active, and ones who are more laid back. They wanted to slowly "program" activity into half the mice to try to get them to enjoy exercise by evolution. After many generations, they wanted to be able to test to see if loving exercise effected brain size. The scientists saw a correlation between brain size and exercise, however, they could not determine if it was loving exercise made their brain bigger, or if having a big brain made them want to run more. They found that the mid-brain accounts for your reward center, where chemicals that make you feel good are released when you do something pleasurable. And the greater the size of the mid-brain, the more ability you have to experience that happiness. This correlation is a major turning point in science because you could apply this method of study to any animal. as professional Raichlen, says, this is "an amazing step forward, this new data shows you can select a behavioral trait and see a change in the brain." The scientists next move is to see whether there is a correlation between human brain size and exercise.
NOS Themes
- Science is based on evidence- They used dissections and MRI's to study the mice brains.
- Role of motivation and curiosity- The scientists had to discover this seemingly random idea themselves.
- Science is subject to debate and tentative- You could take this either way, saying: loving exercise made their brain bigger, or if having a big brain made them want to run more.
Link:
http://www.insidescience.org/content/how-running-our-lives-may-have-made-humans-smarter/921
This is a really intriguing article. I like that it kind of has to do with evolution, too. I think a lot of people could relate to the findings of the study, since most people do at least some kind of exercise. I found this article about the effect of exercise on humans...http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360197/
ReplyDeleteI found this article on a study done in 2011. http://www.dallasnews.com/health/fitness/headlines/20110202-aerobic-exercise-can-increase-brain-size-keeping-you-mentally-sharp.ece According to this study, aerobic exercise increases brain size - specifically the hippocampus which is the part of the brain that helps with memorization. This study was done on older adults (55-80). The adults that participated in monitored aerobic exercise experienced about a 2% growth in their brains in just a year. I think that these studies are really important and prove how exercise affects a lot of different things.
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