Mens Sana in Corpore Sano—Yes!

A daily constitutional can be better for your brain’s health than a software program?

Charlie being a big-time bike rider and at home swimming in the ocean—-and continuing to benefit from daily adapted P.E. at 11.30am at school—I was glad to read a November 8th New York Times op-ed, Exercise on the Brain by Sandra Aamodt, the Editor in Chief of Nature Neuroscience, and Sam Wang, associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton University.

Computer programs to improve brain performance are a booming business. In the United States, consumers are expected to spend $80 million this year on brain exercise products, up from $2 million in 2005. Advertising for these products often emphasizes the claim that they are designed by scientists or based on scientific research. To be charitable, we might call them inspired by science—— not to be confused with actually proven by science.

(In autism treatments, that phrase “inspired by science” might be of use.)

Aamodt and Wang also note that exercise might help the brain in these ways:

In people, fitness training slows the age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex, which is important for executive function. In rodents, exercise increases the number of capillaries in the brain, which should improve blood flow, and therefore the availability of energy, to neurons. Exercise may also help the brain by improving cardiovascular health, preventing heart attacks and strokes that can cause brain damage. Finally, exercise causes the release of growth factors, proteins that increase the number of connections between neurons, and the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory. Any of these effects might improve cognitive performance, though it’s not known which ones are most important.

It is the case that, after his long bike rides and serious ocean swims, Charlie is not only more focused, but calmer, more peaceful-easy-feeling, as Jim likes to say. I think that Charlie is proud of his physical exploits ; I know he is proud when he stands up to pump the pedals and goes flying down the street (yes, Jim is right beside him). He has become fast and steady on his scooter now too; there’s a tennis court not far from where we live and, now that we’ve gotten some old tennis rackets and a can of balls, we may add a new sport to Charlie’s repertoire.

Makes me wonder what might happen if Charlie ever did any testing, and especially intelligence testing, after or during or intermixed with a good bout of physical activity. A new study in Brain and Cognition suggests that, when students with Asperger Syndrome are tested for fluid intelligence, their non-verbal IQ is revealed to be higher than thought. According to Developing Intelligence:

Hayashi et al gave 17 children with Asperger’s a test of fluid intelligence called the Raven’s Progressive Matrices. Fluid intelligence is thought to reflect problem-solving ability, to show large individual differences, and to be a distinct construct from general intelligence (”g”). The results showed that these children performed better on the Raven’s Progressive Matrices test than 17 age- and sex-matched controls, and that these results seemed to be driven by superior fluid intelligence among male children with Asperger’s.

The authors conclude that subjects with Asperger’s may have superior left lateral prefrontal function, and that future research should focus on understanding the precise cognitive correlates of improved fluid intelligence.

And what if the test did not have to be taken while seated in a chair at a table in a stuffy room……… A sound mind in a sound body, is a good thing, indeed.