Sport is beneficial for our health, it helps us to be fit, it protects us from many diseases, it strengthens our immune system, etc. , in this way, sport is one of our best allies to lead a healthy life and make our organism work better.
The brain is one of the great beneficiaries of the sport, to reach this conclusion several studies have been carried out that support this hypothesis, in addition to that these studies were complemented with others, whose purpose was simply to clarify this relationship in more detail.
- Therefore.
- We will list below some of the studies that have found in their results the positive influence of physical activity on different cognitive processes.
A group of researchers from the University of Granada, led by Luque-Casado, compared two groups of young adults: one with a high level of physical form and one with a sedentary lifestyle, while performing a cognitive psychomotor follow-up task of 60 minutes.
Electrophysiological activity was recorded in participants and it was found that those with a high level of physical condition maintained a higher range of P3 potential, which is associated with the ability to focus attention effectively throughout the task, compared to participants.
Attention is a high-level cognitive function and is linked to all cognitive processes. The results suggest that people who exercise have a more effective two-way function between the central and autonomous nervous systems, i. e. between the brain and the heart.
A systematic review published in the Journal of Neurology has investigated the relationship between physical exercise and recovery from impaired cognitive functions due to stroke. Strength/resistance training would further improve cognitive function.
Thus, physical activity is a promising therapy for the recovery of people who have suffered a stroke, not only at the level of motor function, as expected, but the benefits can also be extended at the cognitive level.
Franco-MartÃnez conducted another systematic review focusing on the influence of physical activity on cognitive function in the elderly, both healthy and cognitively dysfunctional, studies that indicated that a higher rate of physical activity would be related to lower impairment in both groups.
Physical exercise is a promising psychosocial strategy for intervention of older adults with or without signs of cognitive dysfunction. In support of these findings, it has been published in the scientific journal BMC Psychiatry that maintaining an active lifestyle may be a protective factor against cognitive dysfunction. and, in some cases, give better results than a specific intervention.
This finding suggests that having an active lifestyle may be different from training interventions in terms of dosage and variety of activities, as well as in the intrinsic motivation and fun to do. Exercise affects cognitive function, vascular health and brain metabolism.
A study published in Journal of Neurology by Gil-Martinez conducted a systematic review of all these studies with the aim of addressing migraines and headaches by increasing physical activity. They concluded that therapeutic exercise reduced the intensity and frequency of pain compared to the previous situation.
Qualitative analysis showed strong evidence of no adverse effects after the application of therapeutic exercises, this absence of side effects may have advantages over the use of certain medications.
In addition, the effectiveness of physiotherapy treatment, including therapeutic exercise, has been shown to reduce the intensity, frequency and duration of pain in tension headaches.
At the Radboud Institute, at the Donders University Medical Center in the Netherlands, a study was conducted to learn about the effect of sport after memorizing certain information, in the end 72 people participated who studied the position of 90 drawings for 40 minutes, and then assigned each of the participants one of the three groups.
In the first, the subjects performed exercises immediately after completing the memory task, the second group 4 hours later, and the third group did not perform physical activity. 48 hours later, the subjects re-tested to see what they remembered from the memory task. , while performing an MRI.
The results indicated that those in the group who exercised 4 hours after memorizing the task retained the information better than the other two groups. MRIs also showed more accurate representations in the hippocampus, the area of the brain linked to learning and memory, provided that the individual responded correctly.