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   Apr 27

Running really does clear your head: Experts explain the link between aerobic exercise and subsequent cognitive clarity and how it makes you smarter

Increases blood flow to the brain’s frontal lobe, linked to clear thinking

Running creates new neurons in brain region for learning and memory

Some say magical things happen when they go for a run.

Runners have reported bursts of clarity, enhanced moods and getting lost in their own thoughts.

Now, experts have revealed how 30 to 40 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise can cure what ails you – by birthing new neurons and increasing blood flow in regions of the brain involved with learning and emotion.

Runners reported bursts of clarity, enhanced moods and getting lost in their own thoughts long enough to confront external tasks. Experts explain 30 to 40 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise can cure what ails you by birthing new neurons and increasing blood flow to regions of the brain involved with learning and emotion

WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR BRAINS WHEN WE RUN?

Runners have reported bursts of clarity, enhanced moods and getting lost in their own thoughts long enough to confront external tasks.

Experts explain how 30 to 40 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise can cure what ails you by birthing new neurons and increasing blood flow to regions of the brain involved with learning and emotion.

Aerobic exercise doesn’t prevent people from people from being sad or depressed, but it does help them recover from the symptoms.

Running also allows us to be mindlessness, which serves four adaptive functions: Self-reflection, creativity, attentional cycling and dishabituation.

It took about 30 years of work in neuroscience to discover the link between aerobic exercise and subsequent cognitive thinking, reports New York Magazine.

And have ‘identified a robust link between aerobic exercise and subsequent cognitive clarity.’

They’ve also debunked the theory that once humans grow older, their brains cannot make new neurons.

Recent studies discovered that after a run, new neurons are formed in the area of the brain associated with learning and memory – the hippocampus.

‘If you are exercising so that you sweat — about 30 to 40 minutes — new brain cells are being born,’ said Karen Postal, president of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology.

‘And it just happens to be in that memory area.’

Other studies have noted an increase of blood flow to the brain’s frontal lobe, which is involved with clear thinking, planning ahead, focus and concentration.

But this region is also associated with emotion regulation, which explains a study from Harvard University study that found ‘acute aerobic exercise did not prevent an increase in sadness response to a subsequent stressor, results suggest that it may help people recovery.

Researchers showed the final scene of the 1979 film ‘The Champ’, which has been noted as a ‘reliable tear jerker’, to a group of 80 participants.

Prior to watching the movie snippet, some of the participants were ask to jog for 30 minutes and the others performed stretching exercises for the same amount of time.

Each subject was given a survey to report how sad the film made them, while the researcher kept them busy for another 15 minutes and then they were asked how they were feeling.

The team found that participants who reported difficulties concentration or felt overwhelmed by their emotions were less affect by their symptoms following 30 minutes of aerobic exercise.

And reported less sadness at the end of the study that those who did not exercise, said researchers.

Besides enhancing one’s clarity and memory, experts have found another benefit of going for a long run ¿ mindlessness. This act serves four broad adaptive functions:Future planning, creativity, attentional cycling and dishabituation

This act includes daydreaming or getting lost in your own thoughts, which they say is important to our well-beings.

Jerome Singer from Yale University and his colleagues suggest that positive constructive daydreaming serves four broad adaptive functions, reads the study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

It assists with future planning, which is increased by a period of self-reflection, creativity for problem solving, attentional cycling that allows you to rotate through different information streams to advance personally meaningful goals and dishabituation that enhances learning through short breaks from external tasks.

Source: Daily Mail

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