Exercise boosts the Brain - for all ages! Science FACT!

A Dublin Research Group have managed to demonstrate that brain function can be enhanced with exercise. Essentially a face-matching task was performed twice with one as a baseline. Half of the study group were then sat quietly before retesting, whilst the other half sat on a bike at increasing levels of speed until exhaustion. The researchers noted an improvement in face-matching as images flashed across the computer screen in only one group: the Exercise Group.

Molecular model of the methylated
BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) gene (yellow and red)
on a strand of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

Blood testing demonstrated that higher levels of the protein brain-deroved neutrophic factor (BDNF) were present in the Exercise Group, but not in the Quiet Group. This protein promotes the health of existing nerve cells, encourages the growth of new ones, and thus this proliferation is potentially a function of this cognitive enhancement post-exercise.


Brazilian scientists have recently recorded similar findings of BDNF concentration elevations in rats, with sedentary older rats who had run for five minutes per day for five weeks performing almost as well as significantly younger rats on rodent memory tests. Structural changes and a decrease in the volume of the hippocampus are linked to ageing, but this demonstration of potential 'reversal' of memory function may be an important boost to exercise-induced hippocampus change.

A depression of BDNF could been seen as a predictor of reduction of skilled task performance in elderly humans if this September paper in Translational Psychiatry is to be believed:
BDNF Polymorphism Linked to Decline in Skilled Task Performance
In this study of 144 pilots over 40 years of age, a minimum of three annual visits for a computer cockpit simulation demonstrated a reduction of the skilled task over the test period. Some of the group had a genetic tendency towards lower BDNF levels, and this group lost their ability to perform the skilled task at almost double the rate of those without the genetic variation. 


This is a link to the complete article by Griffin et al:
Physiology & Behavior Volume 104, Issue 5, 24 October 2011, Pages 934-941

So ageing may demonstrate that skilled task performance may be linked to the protein BDNF. However the recent animal & human studies suggest that an upregulation of BDNF through exercise could at least slow the reversal of skilled task performance & the changes in structure and volume of the hippocampus.