Role of Exercise in Maintaining Brain Health - Research Paper Example

? [Type the document [Type the document sub [Pick the [Type the company pc HUMAN BRAIN The Value of Understanding Brain and Measures to Improve Brain Importance of Understanding Human Brain Human brain, a three pound organ but with approximately 100 billion cells is one of the most intriguing subject of research, both structurally and functionally. However despite decades of exhaustive and multidimensional studies human brain still remains incompletely understood, and frequently misunderstood. During the last two decades technological advances have enabled researchers to study the brain anatomy and its working though use of imaging techniques such as PET (positron emission tomography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The preliminary knowledge enabling an understanding of the various factors that lead to brain development, enhance its functioning ability or the reverse is known. Though it is not yet sufficient to comprehend the brain processes completely, yet it is sufficient to enable an individual to make a deliberate effort to improve his ability to think, caution him against negative impacts and finally not fall in to traps of ‘brain myths’ (Pechura & Martin, 1991). In this respect certain aspects of brain that an individual must remain informed about include the fact that human brain has a remarkable ability to respond to its environment constantly creating and degrading neural connection according to demands; a characteristic known as brain plasticity. Hence continuous and long term learning enhances brain capacity and vice versa (Cotman & Berchtold, 2002). Next human brain goes through phases, during which certain forms and aspects of learning are more effective than others. For e.g. adolescent is a period of emotional development with a sudden rise in hormone levels, added to an incompletely developed pre-frontal cortex contributing to the erratic behavior (Casey et al., 2008). Another very important established fact is that our experiences and our environment shape the way we think and react. Hence education should ensure a wide range of positive experiences and guidance to react constructively in adverse situations. How an individual manages himself, his emotional quotient along with intelligence quotient, his self confidence along with self regulation depend on the nature of environment that he experiences. This in turn decides his social, personal and professional relationships; his ethics and ambitions; and finally; his contribution to the society and nation. Information is the key to progress and knowledge is power. An informed individual definitely has a higher probability to take correct decisions which enables him to derive maximum benefit from the available set of condition. Hence it is of utmost importance for an individual to understand the structure and functioning of brain, and remain aware of the latest information available in this respect. The information is essential for a parent to ensure that his child gets appropriate nurturing to ensure proper growth and development of his brain, for an educator to enable him to provide adequate stimulation and suitable guidance to his students ensuring that they are able to reach their potential. Finally the knowledge is important to any responsible citizen who wishes to lead a successful life and avoid situations that may mar his chances of achieving his goals. Task Design for Improvement of Attention in Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Functional areas of the brain are complex and highly interdependent. An abnormality or a distinctiveness in one area leads to a cascade of effects that can alter the personality of the effected individual, bestow him unique gifts or lead to disabilities. In certain cases the two occur together, leading to a unique personality. Such individuals need special attention and education to enable them to overcome their weaknesses and develop their unique gifts. One such case is of individuals with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a mental health disorder commonly perceptible during childhood and identified by hyperactivity and inattention (APA, 1994). The disorder renders the individual incapable of performing his daily chores. Further education of these individuals becomes difficult as a consequence of inattention and hyperactivity. Hence in order to enable teachers and parents to overcome difficulties in education and rearing of these children it is important to devise strategies to overcome inattention, hyperactivity and inattention. In this paper is presented Computerized Progressive Attentional Training (CPAT), a strategy targeted to overcome inattention in individuals with ADHD (Shalev et al., 2007). The strategy comprises a set of four tasks, each aiming to achieve targets of sustained attention, selective attention, orienting of attention and executive attention. Human brain attentional network has been proposed to be formed of three distinct functional networks; a vigilance network formed of right frontal and parietal region and enabling an individual to remain alert of his surroundings. Next is a visual orienting network involving the superior parietal lobe and temporal parietal junction and responsible for regulation of information received through the sensory network. The third is the executive attention network that controls responses to the situation on the basis of sensory input. This area is anatomically represented by the midline frontal areas and lateral prefrontal cortex (Posner & Petersen, 1990). During the first step of CPAT, that is to train for sustained attention an exercise designed by Rosvold and associates (1956) is used. The student is required to press a predetermined key or click the mouse whenever a predetermined alphabet or number is perceived. The input can be audio or visual. The exercise period ranges from five to 20 minutes with one stimulus per second (Shalev et al., 2007). In the second step of training for selective attention, the participants are given the conjunctive search task formulated by Treisman & Gelade (1980). During this activity an article with two features occurring together, for e.g. a blue ‘A’ is identified. The participants scan a part of the display for appearance of this object with both features and when it was identified they pressed a key. Visual search involving a combination of features requires a higher level of alertness and hence enables higher levels of activation of attentional networks (Shalev et al., 2007). The improvement of orienting attention is achieved through an exercise based on Combined orienting and Flanker task. In order to be able to completely understand a situation, an individual needs to shift focus repeatedly from one object to another or from one region to another. The cues to move are either endogenous i.e. dependent on the observer or exogenous i.e. based on sudden change in appearance of the cue new target. In both of the above cases orientation of the individual is altered. Posner and associates demonstrated that when orientation is altered an individual is able to identify the new target quickly even when his eyes are focused elsewhere. In Flanker task an individual is expected to focus attention on an object in a particular spatial region. The individual is for e.g. told to respond by pressing a particular key when the target is a car or bike and another key if it is a truck or train. Adjacent to the target are objects that have to be ignored. In cases where the adjacent objects are the ones that demand opposite response to the target, the task is rendered difficult and requires higher levels of orienting attention due to incompatibility of the target flanking objects with the target (Bundesen & Thomas, 2005). Finally to improve executive attention a task based on Shift Stroop-like task is designed. Stroop in 1935 had developed a task of naming the ink color used in writing a word. When the word was the name of a color itself different from the color of ink used; the task became complicated due to conflicting cues. A deeper understanding of the Stroop effect led to the conclusion that the difficulty arose due to conflicts in later stages of processing (Bundesen & Thomas, 2005). The four tasks are consecutively presented to the participant in an hour long biweekly session during a period of 8 to 10 weeks. It is expected that the sessions would lead to improvement in sustained attention, selective attention, orientation attention and executive attention of the individual. Role of exercise in maintaining brain health Human brain as a consequence of ‘behavioral plasticity’ is receptive of and responds to changes in its environment at cellular, molecular and system levels leading to changes in brain’s functional capacity and individual behavior. This attribute of human brain has lead to exhaustive researches in deciphering positive & negative, stimulating & deteriorating, motivating & damaging factors effecting brain. Further as a public health measure, and an attempt to improve achievement levels at all stages of life, it has been the goal of scientists, educationists and researchers to devise strategies to maintain the normal functioning of a healthy brain and to improve its functional capacity. Unlike the latter, maintaining brain health becomes an important field of research for middle aged and elderly populations since with advancing age vulnerability to neurodegenerative diseases rises and diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease become common (Hill, et al., 1993). One of the most studied and highly recommended strategy to maintain brain health involves exercises. Several studies have shown the high significance of exercises in improving cognitive abilities especially in aging populations. Researches in both human subjects and those involving animal populations have established that exercises reduce vulnerability to cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Physical activity has been shown to improve neuronal survival rates, stimulate neurogenesis, resistance to brain damage, enhance brain vascularization, and maintain cognitive ability even during advanced stages of life (Cotman & Berchtold, 2002). The mechanism underlying these impacts of exercise on brain and cognitive ability were earlier speculated to be related to the positive impact of exercise on health and well being in general. Aerobic exercises are known to improve blood circulation and supply of larger concentrations of oxygen to organs including brain. This results in improved capillary health and that of frontal lobes thereby increasing its plasticity (Colcombe et al., 2008). However, at least certain aspects of the positive impacts of exercise on brain are now expected to result as a consequence of direct effect of exercise on brain at the molecular level. Many of the molecular systems can be involved in this mechanism. Further neurotrophic factors have been speculated to form the basis of these positive impacts since they exhibit attributes that can contribute to the exercise-brain relationship. These neurotrophic factors mediate the exercise dependent brain functioning. Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), is one such factor that plays integral role in maintaining synaptic efficacy, neuronal connectivity and brain plasticity. The effect of these factors not only influence motor sensory systems such as cerebellum, basal ganglia and primary cortical regions, but also effect higher level cognitive function and hippocampus areas (Cotman & Berchtold, 2002). In human studies, exercise along with behavioral stimulation has shown to maintain plasticity of brain. Learning, which is a high level of brain plasticity, enhances BDNF gene expression. This in turn enhances learning ability. Exercise on the other hand has also been shown to enhance BDNF gene expression (Tokuyama, W. et al., 2000). BDNF is an established neuroprotective agent and neurotrophic. The role of exercise in stimulating the production of BDNF, establishes the relation of exercise with maintenance of brain activity. Another aspect of influence of exercise on brain involves stress. Stress has a contradicting impact on cognitive abilities. Long term exposure to stress hormones such as corticosteroids has an adverse impact on neuronal survival particularly in the hippocampus. Corticosteroids have been experimentally demonstrated to lower hippocampus levels of BDNF. Exercise on the other hand relieves stress, lower anxiety and depression. The detailed mechanism of role of exercise in negative stress remains to be studied and forms a significant area of research (Cotman & Berchtold, 2002). Conclusion Brain is a highly complex information receiving, analyzing, filtering and processing organ. Science and technology though highly advanced still find it difficult to comprehend the complexities of its structure and function. Biological, psychological, philosophical and several other disciplines are involved in pursuing research to develop understanding of brain, to enable improvement of brain activity during incidences of congenital, acute or chronic brain insult; and devising strategies to maintain brain health in normal adults. Exercise besides nutrition and sleep has been scientifically established method for maintaining brain health and plasticity by influencing brain activity at cellular, molecular and genetic levels. References 1. APA. (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders 4th edition. Washington: American Psychiatric Association. 2. Bundesen, C., & Thomas, H. (2005). Attention. In K. Lamberts, & R. L. Goldstone, Handbook of cognition (pp. 105-29). London: Sage. 3. Casey, B. J., Jones, R. M., & Hare, T. A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 111-26. 4. Colcombe, S. J., Erickson, K. I., Scalf, P. E., Kim, J. S., Prakash, R., McAuley, E., et al. (2006). Aerobic exercise training increses brain volume in aging humans. Journal of gerontology: medical sciences , 1166-70. 5. Cotman, C. W., & Berchtold, N. C. (2002). Excercise: a behavioral intervetion to enhance brain health and plasticity. Trends in neurosciences , 295-301. 6. Hill, R. D. (1993). The impact of long term exercise training on psychological funtion in older adults. Journal of gerontology , P12-7. 7. Pechura, C. M., & Martin, J. B. (1991). Summary. In C. M. Pechura, & J. B. Martin, Mapping the brain and its functions (p. 1). Washington, D. C.: National Academy Press. 8. Shalev, L., Tsal, Y., & Mevorach, C. (2007). Computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program: effective direct intervention for children with ADHD. Child Neuropsychology , 382-8. 9. Tokuyama, W. et al. (2000). BDNF upregulation during declarative memory formation in monkey inferior temporal cortex. Natural Neuroscience , 1134-42. Read More