Research Hit: Why Exercise Improves Your Brain's Performance

Release of dopamine with active exercise improves brain's reaction times

You’ve written a lot on exercise previously and we know it is great for the brain right?

Yes, indeed it is one of the simplest ways to improve just about everything in the brain - brain growth, minimise cognitive decline with ageing, improve cognitive performance, and reaction speed. So much so that it actually should also be mandated in businesses!

So, if we already know that, what is the research you are reporting on about?

Yes, we know a lot of the correlations of how exercise benefits cognitive performance but some of the mechanisms of how this works are not clear (and are very complex). This therefore can refine our knowledge but also look at other interventions - for those that are bedridden for example.

Ok so what did this research do?

This was conducted by Soichi Ando et al. of the University of Portsmouth (UK). They zoomed in on dopamine release during exercise with some fascinating results.

Isn’t dopamine responsible for small rewards - we talk of the dopamine hit of social media, right?