To Your Health
June, 2023 (Vol. 17, Issue 06) |
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Your Brain Needs a Walk
By Editorial Staff
Walking is beneficial at any stage of life, but when you're older, it's essential to help optimize mobility and independence at a time when, sadly, many people lose one or both. But the health benefits go beyond the physical; your brain benefits from walking, too.
When older adults walk, something fascinating happens in the human brain, according to research: brain connectivity and memory improve.
Researchers supervised older adults (ages 71-85) as they walked on treadmills four days a week for 12 weeks. At baseline (before week one) and at the end of the study (after week 12), each participant took several tests designed to measure cognitive function, including the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and a narrative memory test (logical memory – LM). [For the latter test, participants read a short story and then repeated it aloud (without looking at it) to gauge how many details they could remember.]
Researchers also used functional MRI scans to measure brain changes before and after the exercise program, particularly in terms of communication between three of the major brain networks that influence cognitive function (something that tends to decline with older age).
After the 12-week walking regimen, researchers noted significant improvements from baseline with regard to all three tests. Functional MRI results after the 12-week period also showed changes in within and between network connectivity among the three major brain networks analyzed. Findings appear in the Journal for Alzheimer's Disease Reports. As this study included older adults both with and without a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at baseline, the researchers suggest "participation in simple aerobic exercise like moderate intensity walking may induce neuroplastic effects even in the face of Alzheimer's disease-related neurodegenerative processes that have resulted in a diagnosis of MCI."
