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Just started to read the book "Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School". It basically starts with this "For starters, w
by esseti 11y ago
Just started to read the book "Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School".
It basically starts with this "For starters, we are not used to sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary perspective, our brains developed while working out, walking as many as 12 miles a day. The brain still craves that experience, especially in sedentary populations like our own. That’s why exercise boosts brain power (Brain Rule #1) in such populations. Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving tasks. I am convinced that integrating exercise into our eight hours at work or school would only be normal."
- LoSboccacc 11y agoThat'd be easy to check, since plenty school have a daily morning routine now, school scores aren't comparable, but I guess researchers can figure out a metric for brain fitness.
- tomp 11y ago> Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving tasks I'm pretty sure the cause/effect is reversed here. It's more likely that people who are smart and have better focus/are less impulsive are more likely to take care of their health and exercise.
- anon4 11y agoFrom my experience, there is no correllation between someone being smart and doing exercise.
- Kurtz79 11y agoI think it's misleading to take this kind of studies like they have a binary conclusion (exercisers=smart, couch potatoes=dumb). I guess there are many factors affecting intelligence and fitness, from cultural to genetic. It might not be the only factor, but it could well be one of many.
- amelius 11y agoThat is probably because you almost never see those couch potatoes on the street.
- andor 11y agoIs it? Aerobic exercise increases circulation and oxygen uptake, both of which should improve brain function. For me, the difference that exercise makes is very noticeable, to the point that I feel completely unproductive after not running for some time.
- eggie 11y agoThere is really not any way to know without the right study design. However, if there are multiple ways that each could cause the other, it may be a kind of dialectical process. For example, smiling can make you happy if you force yourself to do it. It also is the result of being happy.
- thewarrior 11y agoSo how come Stephen Hawking isn't a mental slouch by now ?
- theseatoms 11y agoA single data point is hardly an argument.
- daveguy 11y agoI think he was pointing out that correlation does not equal causation. Strong legs => healthy brain is just silly. Could it be better eating habits => both? Just because they're twins doesn't mean one doesn't like their vegetables. Also, this data point is just as valid as the "Bill Gates jumped out of trash cans!" point.
- pc86 11y agoAs was stated elsewhere the most likely cause is that smart people are much more likely to take their health seriously, and part of that is some form of vigorous exercise.
- tomp 11y agoI'm guessing that Hawking would love to exercise. He just can't. Unlike a "couch potato", who can, but won't.
- terryf 11y agoHow do you know he isn't? How do you know what his mental ability would have been if he could?
- brlewis 11y agoYou have a point. We don't know how well he would do "in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving tasks" used in studies. He might have particular difficulty with the attention tasks as his mind keeps wandering back to physics.
- lloydde 11y agoBoth A->B and B->A can be true without A<->B with complex relationships. Dr John Ratey, M.D. covers the topic of exercise and those mental attributes in his seminal 2008 book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. I can't recommend this book strongly enough particularly if there are mental health issues in your life -- and who doesn't! Dr Ratey references and describes a number of experiments and studies done in elementary schools where mental acuity improved across the population when exercise was added. One fascinating detail was the immediacy of the effect. I'd be very surprised if the most recent data is not consistent with the results described in Spark.
- agentgt 11y agoI met John Ratey I believe at his house-office when I was around 16 or 17 (circa 1997) for ADD counseling (my mother was determined to find the best). I remember distinctly telling him how lifting weights was one of the only things that helped me somewhat keep organized... he un-officially agreed that it was better than the medication being pushed at the time (I'm sure things have changed). He was one of the reasons I stopped taking the ADD drugs as I really really hated them (ritalin, adderal...etc).
- njbooher 11y agoMethylphenidate and dextroamphetamine are still the active ingredient of most ADHD drugs.