September 15, 2011
Although Hamilton’s physical fitness requirements may seem unrelated to the academic success of its students, exercise may be more important to learning than we think. On Monday, in the Kennedy Auditorium—so crowded with students and faculty that people started to sit in the aisles and on the floor—Professor Art Kramer delivered a lecture on cognition, exercise training and brain plasticity. Kramer is the Director of the Beckham Institute and a recipient of the prestigious NIH’s MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) Award, which is offered only to researchers who have demonstrated significant scientific achievement.
For those who haven’t taken a psychology course, brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to organize neural pathways based on new experience. Fluid intelligence, or the ability to think abstractly and make decisions quickly, is one component of plasticity that declines with age. Professor Kramer’s research deals with factors that effect plasticity and focuses on how to improve cognition and prevent the decline of fluid intelligence through lifestyle choices.
Overall, Kramer’s research indicates that any type of aerobic exercise, even just walking, can improve performance on memory, problem solving and other cognitive tasks. After about the age of 20, our brains begin to decline in terms of memory and cognitive skills. However, exercise may prevent this decline, if not reverse it. One study found that having previously inactive seniors walk around a track just a couple times a day for six months could significantly improve their memory. However, the effects were only seen with aerobic exercise, more commonly known as cardio, and not with exercises that didn’t increase heart rate, such as stretching or toning. However, Kramer warned that simply walking probably wouldn’t be enough exercise to see an effect in college students, since students are younger and in better shape.
Another study Kramer participated in dealt with the effects of exercise on cognition and decision-making. He had children walk on a self-powered treadmill that would detect how quickly the children were moving, and move them forward in a virtual image of a street that was projected life-size on the wall in front of them as they walked. Their task was to cross the street without getting hit by the virtual cars. In some trials, the children would be given distracting tasks to perform while trying to cross the street, such as talking on the phone. The children with higher fitness levels were hit by the virtual cars fewer times and were able to think faster and make better judgments when crossing the street than the children who weren’t as fit, especially when they were given distracting tasks.
One research project that Kramer mentioned that happened to be a significant crowd pleaser indicated that videogames could also improve cognition. In this study, Kramer and his fellow researchers used videogames as a training context for executive control and function in older adults. In the experiment, groups of elderly participants were taught how to play Rise of Nations, a strategy game in which they had to build cities, conquer other cities and make real-time decisions. When the experiment concluded, many of the research subjects showed a significant decrease in task switch cost, meaning they were able to multitask much more efficiently.
What can we learn from all of this? As of right now it looks as if more exercise is good for the brain and the right videogames can help train our brains in ways that may prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia later in life.
If you’re interested in learning more about Professor Kramer’s research visit http://www.iib.illinois.edu/faculty/faculty/akramer.cfm.