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How Exercise Helps New Brain Cells Grow

How Exercise Helps New Brain Cells Grow

by | 2023 Jul 31 | Healthy Brains, Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

brain growth exercise

Ok, I know we all know that exercise is good for us. Many of you also know that I have reported multiple times over the years on the many positive impacts exercise has on our brains and one of these is in building new brain cells.

Yup, we can grow new brain cells – it was long thought that our brains were fixed with some flexibility in how our brain cells wire together and potentially rewire. However, over the years neurogenesis, the birth of new brain cells has been seen. Granted this is in limited areas of the brain – so don’t get too excited.

It is also know that exercise increases the production of new brain cells (in animal models) – and this could be as simple as walking. But why and how this happens was a mystery and this is where this piece of research published din June 2023 comes in because it shows how this can happen.

If you’re a sports person you may have heard of lactate – often in the form of lactic acid which is the by product of short bursts of intensive exercise that gives you that heavy “pumped” feeling in your muscles and can also lead to lack of coordination (the mechanisms of this has also been misunderstood to the lay sports person but that’s not for here – hint it’s not the “acid” that causes the problem).

As I said lactate is a by product of exercise and metabolism – that is the old story but we also know that lactate can be an energy source in itself and it is known that lactate is also an important signalling molecule in the nervous system i.e. triggers other cells to activate or not. And this signalling seems to be involved in brain cell growth and formation of new cells. The precise mechanisms, however, was unknown – enter Yidan Xu working in the team of Ryoichi Nagatomi at the University of Tohuku University in Japan.

They examined the role of lactate in the central nervous system and particularly in combination with a protein called NDRG3. This mediates gene regulation and in their experiments they showed NDRG3 is modulated by lactate stimulating plasticity and growth of new cells when present (that’s a very simplified summary).

So there you have it – not only do we know exercise is good for health, and good for your brain, we now know that lactate, that is a by product of exercise, is one of the factors that influences your genetic activation to build and grow brain cells.

If that’s not a good reason to exercise I don’t know what is.

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Yidan Xu, Joji Kusuyama, Shion Osana, Satayuki Matsuhashi, Longfei Li, Hiroaki Takada, Hitoshi Inada, Ryoichi Nagatomi.
Lactate promotes neuronal differentiation of SH-SY5Y cells by lactate-responsive gene sets through NDRG3-dependent and -independent manners.
Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2023; 299 (6): 104802
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104802

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Light Activity Improves Brain Function

Light Activity Improves Brain Function

by | 2023 Jul 28 | Healthy Brains, Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

walking brain health

In the quest for fitness and health there has been a focus on exercise as a key factor – we all know that. And recommendations are normally about increasing heart rates over long periods of time or possible also shorter more intensive sessions. These have also been shown to improve cognitive function – making your brain more effective.

However, the route to greater health may be easier – or more specifically of enhanced brain function. The effects of light activity in the focus on more intensive and extensive exercise has been largely underestimated – and is considered by some to be a key factor in public health. Our engagement in light activity has over the decades decreased significantly – see my previous article here.

In this research just out Ryuta Kuwamizu and colleagues of the University of Tsukuba in Japan conducted a simple but effective experiment. In this participants did 10 mins of easy exercise – in this case light pedalling while seated. During this they measured pupil dilation because this is also related to brain function specifically executive function. Executive function refers to harder cognitive tasks such as decision making, short-term, memory, calculation, and analysis – basically what many consider the heavy lifting of the brain in our daily lives.

Yes, and indeed just this short light exercise intervention increased delation of the pupil and this was directly related to improved executive functions which was determined though scanning the frontal part of the brain where our executive functions reside with a technique called near infrared spectroscopy.

This therefore points to, as I have mentioned in other places, the significant benefits of short bouts of light exercise on improved brain function – something of particular interest to businesses no doubt. I have long since promoted the idea of regular short walking breaks – this shows again why. For a review of the benefits of walking see this article here).

Not that it has to be at work – a walk or light exercise will improve your brain function – and that is good for all of us, all the time.

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Ryuta Kuwamizu, Yudai Yamazaki, Naoki Aoike, Taichi Hiraga, Toshiaki Hata, Michael A. Yassa, Hideaki Soya.
Pupil dynamics during very light exercise predict benefits to prefrontal cognition
NeuroImage, Volume 277, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120244

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A Surprisingly Simple Technique to Improve Learning and Memory

A Surprisingly Simple Technique to Improve Learning and Memory

by | 2023 Jul 27 | Learning Brains, Public, Quick Hits

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memory brain

“Imagine you are a master thief doing a heist at an art museum,”. These were the instructions, that may sound strange, at the start of a scientific experiment. All harmless of course and something we can relate to with many an entertaining film about master thieves.

This was all part of setting the scene in a computer game to measure memory in a clever experiment conducted by Alyssa Sinclair and colleagues at Duke University. But, and this is crucial, the instructions given differed slightly and this is what led to different learning and recall outcomes.

The potential master thieves, study participants, 420 adults in all, were told that they were in the moment of the heist itself or, alternatively, that they were scouting out the museum for a future heist. The virtual museum was exactly the same with four coloured doors leading to four rooms with different collections of art with some picture and collections being more valuable than others.

And these two mindsets labeled a high-pressure mindset, needing to perform in the moment, and a curious mindset gave noticeably different outcomes when measured the following day.

The following day participants logged back in and were queried on their recall of the paintings and their values. They were presented with a whopping 175 pictures, 100 from the game and 75 additional ones, and asked to identify them and place the respective values to them.

Those who were in the scouting, curiosity, mode, the curiosity mindset were much better at identifying the correct pictures and assigning the correct values to them.

It seems that this lower-stress state allows for better mapping of the world and therefore better memory and recall. However, it’s not all bad for the high-pressure mindset. Though recall was lower, they were able to more effectively identify the highest value pieces and subsequently “won” on collecting the most stash.

This highlights what other research has pointed to, namely that high-pressure is good for value-based judgements in the moment. This is the proverbial scenario of escaping from the threatening bear – if you are faced with a bear, scouting the environment and remembering this, is not the best strategy and immediate value-based i.e. save my neck, judgement is needed.

It also does show that curiosity is effective for learning and needs to be in lower pressure situations. This in our adult lives can, however, be challenging, as it can be for many businesses. We are often moving constantly from one high-pressure situation to another and this can therefore impede learning and recall (not to mention leave us in a constant state of stress).

So the big outcome of this is that for learning and recall, curiosity is the best mindset – and this is something that is free and accessible to all of us.

Curious to learn more? I reported previously that curiosity could be an inborn trait and the newly discovered brain networks that drive curiosity.

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Alyssa H. Sinclair, Yuxi C. Wang, R. Alison Adcock.
Instructed motivational states bias reinforcement learning and memory formation.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2023; 120 (31)
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2304881120

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Espresso Combats Alzheimer’s

Espresso Combats Alzheimer’s

by | 2023 Jul 26 | Healthy Brains, Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

espresso coffee brain alzheimer

Yay, more good news for us coffee drinkers!

I am always interested in the research that is coming out with regard to coffee as a coffee drinker. Yes, so I am biased. Coffee had been considered unhealthy for many years but research over the years has shown multiple health benefits (including living longer) – I first discovered this after encountering a coffee expert who told me of all the antioxidants and natural ingredients in coffee beans – I was converted.

This research just out, though, is even more fascinating – it showed that espresso can reduce clumping of proteins in the brain that lead to Alzheimer’s – wow!

In this fascinating research by Roberto Tira and colleagues of the University of Verona in Italy – no surprise in the location there – they incubated various coffee compounds found in freshly extracted coffee and also a complete espresso compound next to tau proteins.

Tau proteins are natural occurring in the human brain but it is precisely these that end up becoming dysfunctional and clumping up to form blobs of protein that the brain can no longer clean out. This is also a key indicator of Alzheimer’s.

When these molecules from coffee were incubated alongside the proteins the fibres they formed were shorter and didn’t form into sheets suggesting that they would be less likely to form clumps. What’s more the most effective at reducing this was the full espresso compound rather than individual molecules extracted from the espresso compound.

This could be for many reasons such as having multiple molecules that are beneficial.

Obviously this was a lab test and in the human body your espresso doesn’t go directly to your brain – alas. But, nevertheless, another piece in the increasing large collection of research showing that coffee has multiple potential benefits.

Another shot of espresso for me then●

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

Reference

Roberto Tira, Giovanna Viola, Carlo Giorgio Barracchia, Francesca Parolini, Francesca Munari, Stefano Capaldi, Michael Assfalg, Mariapina D’Onofrio.
Espresso Coffee Mitigates the Aggregation and Condensation of Alzheimer′s Associated Tau Protein.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2023; DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.3c01072

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