hrvatski

Can exercise make our children smarter?

Physical activity of children has benefits not only to physical health and fitness but to cognitive and brain health as well. Many studies suggest that exercise can increase the brain volume of the children, make positive changes in structure and function of brain, improve their cognitive abilities and academic achievements. The major effects of exercise occur within two regions of brain: subventricular zone of the lateral ventricle and dentate gyrus in the hippocampus, but also some research suggest that exercise can affect prefrontal cortex. The first studies of changes in the brain structure and its function were made on the animals, mainly rodents, but in the last decade there are plenty of researches carried out on the humans proving the positive effects of exercise on the brain. The aim of this study is to reveal the effects of exercise on the brain structure and function in children, and to analyze methodological approach applied in the researches of this topic. METHODS: This literature review provides an overview of important findings in this fast growing research domain. Results from cross- sectional, longitudinal, and interventional studies of the influence of exercise on the brain structure and function of healthy children are reviewed and discussed. RESULTS: The majority of researches are done as cross sectional studies based on the exploring correlation between the level of physical activity and characteristics of brain structure and function. Results of the studies indicate that exercise has positive correlation with improved cognition and beneficial changes to brain function in children. Physically active children have greater white matter integrity in several white matter tracts (corpus callosum, corona radiata, and superior longitudinal fasciculus), have greater volume of gray matter in the hippocampus and basal ganglia than their physically inactive counterparts. The longitudinal/interventional studies also showed that exercise (mainly aerobic) improve cognitive performance of children and causes changes observed on functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (fMRI) located in prefrontal and parietal regions. CONCLUSION: Previous researches undoubtable proved that exercise can make positive changes of the brain structures in children, specifically the volume of the hippocampus which is the center of learning and memory

physical activity ; cognition ; brain ; children

nije evidentirano