A recent study reveals that exercising in the forties may enhance the brain’s capacity to process and store information. According to London-based researchers, middle-aged persons who regularly engage in moderate-to-vigorous exercise score higher on cognitive tests. On the other hand, people who don’t move much or spend their days sitting about seem to have less mental capacity.
Exercising linked to enhancing cognitive health
Previous studies examining the advantages of physical activity in midlife found a connection to improved cognitive health. Such studies, however, didn’t look into other potential explanations for the increase in mental capacity, like how much time an individual spends sleeping. Medium- to high-intensity exercise enhances cognition, particularly in the parts of the brain responsible for working memory, organizing, and planning, according to the latest research.
The study tracked participants from 2016 to 2018 and collected their backgrounds, lifestyle, and health information. They wore activity trackers for a week for around ten hours per day to document their activity. In addition, researchers evaluated cognition by making the subjects complete various cognitive assessments testing executive function and verbal memory.
According to the activity tracker, participants engaged in minimal exercise for 5 hours and 42 minutes on average and moderate to strenuous physical activity for 51 minutes. An average of 9 hours and 16 minutes were spent undertaking inactive activities by individuals in their mid-forties. Each night, subjects did sleep for roughly eight hours and eleven minutes, which is the ideal amount of time.
Individuals with sedentary life have higher cognitive ratings
Interestingly, mostly inactive people were most likely to have higher cognitive ratings. The authors postulate that this might be the case since these individuals were working or reading instead of watching television, both of which are cognitively stimulating tasks. In addition, rather than memory, the connections were greater for executive functions, such as information processing.
Individuals that had the highest cognitive tests focused on mild-to-vigorous physical activity spent little time sleeping and had sedentary behaviors. Conversely, the lowest performers used most of their time in light-intensity exercises.
