Saturday, September 19, 2009

Scientists say exercise strengthens brain

Scientists say exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss.

Researchers have conducted tests on mice and found out exercise affects a part of the brain called dentate gyrus, which is responsible for age-related memory loss.

Later they used magnetic resonance images to figure out the effect of exercise on human. They found similar patterns in human. "Once these findings were established in mice, we were interested in determining how exercise affects the hippocampal cerebral blood volume maps of humans," they wrote.

They, however, could not dissect the brains of people to see if new neurons grew, but they could use MRI to have a peek.