Quote: (12-19-2012 04:41 PM)Moma Wrote:
Quote: (12-17-2012 05:11 PM)Stitch Wrote:
The more I read about brain training the less it seems to mean anything. If you think it'd be fun, do it (I played with dual n-back for a while and it was work, but I'm not convinced it helped me do anything but get better at dual n-back), but do it for free (android's got a couple free n-back apps) and keep in mind lots and lots of interview like this and pretty much no conclusive peer-reviewed results showing that it works.
Physical activity is likely do do much more for your brain than "brain games". Seriously.
How can physical activity do more for your brain?
To do an exercise, a program has to be first made in your brain.
When you exercise, the frontal lobe sends information to the pre-motor cortex which then goes to the motor cortex which then sends a volley of different signals to all the muscles involved in the movement of the exercise.
As you continue the exercise, the brain 'learns' the movement, and becomes more comfortable with it. In order to make this program easier to fire off the next, the nerves in the brain involved in that particular program start growing roots (synapses) towards each other. This allows them to connect more easily with each other, which makes the movement easier to do in future too (which is why some sports skills become easier with practice, and also partly how weight training works - it's not enough having big muscles, you need big nerves to drive them).
This root growth is stimulated by a growth factor, called neurotropin.
However, the brain is locked in a container (the skull) and is floating about in brain soup (cerebrospinal fluid). A lot of the neurotropin leaks out of the motor control areas, and through the circulation of the soup, end up in areas of the brain that are completely unrelated to exercise.
This extra neurotropin ends up stimulating neural growth in the 'wrong' parts of the brain. The memory centres of the brain are particularly reliant upon and sensitive to neurotropin. Nerves create memories by growing roots and joining up with one another. The extra neurotropin ends up stimulating memory centres, and improving memory recall.
This is why exercise improves memory and to some extent other brain functions. Research has consistently shown that exercise improves memory.