Fit Body = Fit Brain

Having a fitter and firmer body has been linked to a fitter and more active brain, with aerobically fit individuals found to have a better memory in a joint study recently published in NeuroImage. In this ground-breaking study, scientists from the University of Illinois and across the United States used magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) to find correlations between physical health and a more elastic hippocampus. As it turns out, a healthy hippocampus functions much like a healthy body, with a firm and elastic shape associated with increased performance in a range of memory tests.

The research was performed by Aron K. Barbey, Associate Professor of the Departments of Psychology and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois. Along with his colleagues at Illinois, collaborators also came from Northeastern University in Boston and the University of Delaware. The researchers studied 51 healthy adults during the course of the study: 25 men and 26 women age between 18 and 35. Scientists made a number of elasticity measurements using MRE images of the hippocampus, drawing links between the participants' performance on a memory test and their aerobic fitness levels.

According to Guoying Liu, Ph.D. Director of the NIBIB program on Magnetic Resonance Imaging, "MRE is a technique that has been used in organs like the liver, where it can assess the tissue stiffness and offers a reliable, non-invasive method for diagnosing hepatic fibrosis... This study now demonstrates the tremendous potential for MRE to provide new quantitative biomarkers for assessing brain health as it relates to physical fitness. This is particularly significant given the rise in dementia and Alzheimer's disease occurring in the U.S. and worldwide."

While we often hear about the mental benefits of exercise, few studies have been able to find direct links between physical fitness levels and specific brain function. This work was based on well-established observations of atrophy and reduced hippocampus function in cognitively declining seniors and developmentally delayed children, with scientists looking for direct links between physical fitness and brain health. While scientists have long known about the correlation between fitness and memory, they have always been puzzled by the similar size of the hippocampus in both young adults and seniors. As it turns out, much like physical fitness, its not size that counts but the elasticity or firmness of the hippocampus that is responsible for how well it functions.

"Most of the work in this area has relied on changes in the size of the hippocampus as a measure of hippocampal health and function. However, in young adults, although we see an increase in memory in more aerobically fit individuals, we did not see differences in hippocampal size," said Barbey. "Because size is a gross measure of the structural integrity of the hippocampus, we turned to MRE, which provides a more thorough and qualitative measure of changes associated with function - in this case memory." According to Barbey, the results of this study "could certainly serve as tremendous motivation for people concerned about getting forgetful as they age, to get moving and try to stay fit."

 

Image source:  Sofia Zhuravetc/Shutterstock