Who would have guessed it? Unpleasant as it is, having a good old wobble about improves memory and spatial awareness at least as much as doing cardio exercise, if not more, as recent research shows.
Here is the Abstract from this piece of research, published in March 2017.
Physical exercise has been shown to improve cognitive functions. However, it is still unknown which type of exercise affects cognition. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that a demanding balance training program improves memory and spatial cognition. Forty healthy participants aged 19–65 years were randomly assigned to either a balance or relaxation training intervention. Each group exercised twice a week for a total of 12 weeks. Pre- and posttests assessed balance performance, cardiorespiratory fitness, memory, spatial cognition, and executive functions. Only the balance group significantly increased in balance performance from pre- to posttest, while cardiorespiratory fitness remained unchanged in both groups. Moreover, the balance group significantly improved in memory and spatial cognition. Effects on executive functions were not observed. These results suggest that balance training is capable of improving particularly memory and spatial cognition. Therefore, an increase in cardiorespiratory fitness does not seem to be necessary to induce beneficial effects of physical exercise on cognition. It might be speculated that stimulating the vestibular system during balance training induces changes of the hippocampus and parietal cortex possibly via direct pathways between the vestibular system and these brain regions. ((https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06071-9))
As the abstract says, we still don’t know which type of exercise improves brain function, and most research centres on cardiovascular training – getting out of breath. But, unusually, this piece of research focussed on balance (vestibular) training and compared it with relaxation training.
The balance training was tough: one hour twice a week doing balance circuits, with 5 minutes at each station. That’s intense! I could not imagine growing a successful class like this – one where people willingly pay to come.
Nevertheless, what the researchers found is that the vestibular system has a strong link to the hippocampus, which is where short term memories are made. But not only short term memories but also new neurons. This is terrifically exciting! Yes, at one point we thought that after the age of 18 it is downhill all the way for the brain – for some reason, so they said, the brain does not renew its cells (or neurons) whilst the body renews every cell every 7 years – which has to be just plain daft. At the same time, researchers found these funny things in the brain called Glial Cells; since they didn’t know what they did, they assumed they were unimportant. Hah. They now know that glial cells become new neurons and these glial cells are made in the hippocampus. Which means that the brain does renew itself, and its nursery is in its hippocampus.
One problem is that if we make new brain cells, we need to use them or they just die off – use it or lose it. And this means learning new stuff and getting out of our comfort zone. Come and see me for a Z-Health session – that will disturb all that you thought was true about improving things.
The parietal lobe of the brain is where the results of movement are integrated- not only the movements of the body but also the sensations coming from the skin, surrounding temperature and so on. Also the part of vision that deals with where things are – so spatial awareness and peripheral vision. Which is why flailing about on a wobble board or on one leg improves our sense of where we are in space and where things are in relation to us. A huge cause of falling is tripping over things, especially as we age. Therefore we do need to get Grandma well out of her comfort zone and develop her hopping abilities to have her age well and be able to tell us off with verve.
Of course, as a Z-Health professional, I teach people what they need to do to improve their balance rather than just leave them flapping their arms like an angry goose. This involves various brain stem stimulations, which leads to a win win win win situation. Better balance, better brain function, better endocrine system, lower stress levels, the ability to go faster/higher/stronger and now we know also be able to park the car more easily.
One thing that the study did not show was an improvement in executive function, which surprised the researchers. They did wonder if this was due to the wide age range of the participants. Maybe if they repeat the study using people from 50 years old and upwards they will discover this. But you’ll be a brave person to nag Uncle Derek to wobble about like mad for an entire hour, twice a week….