Exercise & Intellect
"Exercise Is ADHD Medication. Physical movement improves mental focus, memory, and cognitive flexibility; new research shows just how critical it is to academic performance." - The Atlantic (Sept 2014)
"Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found more evidence that physical activity is beneficial for brain health and cognition. The findings were published December 2, 2013 online in Behavioural Brain Research. The new study suggests that certain hormones, which are increased during exercise, may help improve memory." - Psychology Today (Dec 2013)
"Scientists Discover Why Exercise Makes You Smarter. Researchers have found an exercise-induced molecule that improves cognition." - Psychology Today (Oct 2013)
"Better Motor Skills Linked to Higher Academic Scores" - Psychology Today (Oct 2013)
"Regular exercise boosts teenagers’ school grades — and particularly helps girls in science, a British study said Tuesday." - Raw Story (Oct 2013)
"Aerobic fitness linked to better academic performance. " - Psychology Today (Feb 2013)
"BDNF plays a key role in creating new neurons. The gene that turns on BDNF is activated by a variety of factors, including physical exercise. Lab rats that exercise have been shown to produce far more BDNF in their brains when compared to sedentary animals. And, there is a direct relationship between elevation of BDNF levels in these animals and their ability to learn and remember." - Psychology Today (Dec 2012)
"Thanks to brain-imaging studies in humans and neurochemical studies in animals, scientists have found evidence that exercise actually makes a stronger brain. Physical exertion induces the cells in the brain to reinforce old connections between neurons and to forge new connections. This denser neuron network is better able to process and store information, essentially resulting in a smarter brain." - Psycholodgy Today (June 2012)
"Go for a brisk walk before studying and your memory of the material is likely to benefit." - BP Research (Aug 2011)
"Looking for a way to boost your brain? Guess what! The solution may be right at your feet. A moderate amount of walking on a daily basis can help strengthen your brain and maybe even your memory. There's encouraging news from a controlled study on the walking-brain-memory connection in older adults. The research, led by University of Pittsburgh psychologist Kirk Erickson, was published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." - Psychology Today Blog (Feb 2011)
"The research team discovered that the hippocampus (part of the brain inside the temporal lobe that plays an important part in memory and learning) tended to be significantly larger in the kids who were physically fit. What's more, the fit children performed better on a memory test than youngsters the same age who were out of shape." - Natural News (Oct 2010)
"College students who want to boost their grades can start by boosting their level of exercise, new research suggests." - The New York Times (June 2010)
"Children who had the best average scores in standardized tests in reading, math, science and social studies were fit at the start and end of the study, researchers found. The next best group, academically, in all four subjects, was made up of children who were not fit in fifth grade but had become fit by seventh grade. The children who had lost their fitness levels between fifth and seventh grades were third in academic performance. Children who were not physically fit in either the fifth or seventh grades had the lowest academic performance." - Science Daily (March 2010)
"Older women who did an hour or two of strength training exercises each week had improved cognitive function a year later, scoring higher on tests of the brain processes responsible for planning and executing tasks, a new study has found." - The New York Times (Jan 2010)
"Physical Activity May Strengthen Children's Ability To Pay Attention" - Science Daily (April 2009)
"Exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss, U.S. researchers reported on Monday." - Reuters (March 2007)
"Allow a laboratory mouse to run as much as it likes, and its brainpower improves. Force it to run harder than it otherwise might, and its thinking improves even more." - New York Times Blogs (Sept 2009)
"Preschool children who were enrolled in a creative dance movement program as part of their Head Start experience had greater gains in social competence and more reductions in behavior problems than children who were given a cognitively-based program of learning to control attention that did not include a body sense component." - Psychology Today Blog (Oct 2009)
"Cardiovascular Fitness is Linked to Intelligence" - Psychology Today Blog (Dec 2009)
"Research Finds Vigorous Exercise Equals Better Academics" - Science Daily (Aug 2006)
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