1, exercise can improve our attention.
There is a reward center in our brain, the nucleus accumbens. When the dopamine level in the nucleus accumbens rises, the nucleus accumbens will become active and we will feel positive and focused. On the contrary, you will be distracted and look for something that can produce more dopamine. For example, when watching TV, if the TV program is wonderful for you, it will stimulate the brain to secrete a lot of dopamine, activate the nucleus accumbens, and make you very focused; But if TV programs are boring, the dopamine level in the nucleus accumbens will drop, and we will be distracted to find something that can produce more dopamine, such as playing mobile phones.
It is not difficult to see that one of the functions of dopamine is to help us shield the external and internal noise. If a person's dopamine secretion is insufficient, his ability to shield interference will decline, and he will be easily influenced by external and internal interference and unable to concentrate. Exercise is a healthy and effective way to improve dopamine level, and people will become more focused and calm after exercise.
2. Exercise can improve our memory.
As we said before, the hippocampus is a repository of short-term memory. All kinds of new information we receive will first enter the hippocampus and then pass to the cerebral cortex, forming long-term memory. If there is something wrong with the hippocampus, it is difficult for us to remember things.
And exercise can help the hippocampus very well. The most basic help is that exercise can increase the blood supply to the hippocampus, provide energy for the normal operation of the hippocampus, and let the hippocampus remember more content.
More importantly, exercise can make the hippocampus bigger and resist the genetic aging of the hippocampus. This is actually the same reason that exercise can increase muscles and make the body more energetic. When our brain is about 25 years old, it reaches its maximum volume, and then naturally shrinks a little every year, including the hippocampus, which shrinks by about 1% every year. But this shrinkage is not completely irreversible. In one study, scientists examined the brains of 120 people with magnetic resonance scanning, measured the volume of their hippocampus, and then divided these people into two groups for exercise. One group participated in endurance sports such as running to improve the heart rate, while the other group participated in light activities such as stretching that did not change the heart rate. A year later, scientists re-tested the hippocampus of the subjects, and found that the hippocampus in the light activity group decreased by 65438 0.4% on average, and the hippocampus in the endurance exercise group increased by 2% on average.
Exercise can increase the volume of hippocampus, and scientists speculate that it is related to nutritional factors, because exercise can promote the hippocampus to produce a large number of nutritional factors, which can promote the growth of brain cells. So that the hippocampus can work more efficiently, that is, memory.
Exercise can improve our creativity.
There are two main reasons why exercise can improve creativity: first, exercise increases the blood flow to the brain, so the brain will have more energy to think. Secondly, exercise can make the brain secrete more dopamine, which can inhibit the information filtering function of "thalamus" and let more information enter the consciousness level of the brain. When the cerebral cortex receives more information, it can naturally look at things from more angles, thus generating more new ideas.
Jogging is a good way to improve creativity. Besides jogging, walking is also a common method. For example, when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, he often walked at home for an hour to think. Jobs would hold regular walking meetings to discuss his work with employees while walking.
In addition to the above three abilities, exercise can also enhance our ability to resist stress and relieve depressive symptoms. In the long run, exercise can comprehensively improve a person's cognitive ability and make us smarter. So, let's get started. On the whole, it is recommended to exercise at least three times a week for about 45 minutes each time; Give priority to with aerobic training, such as running, at the same time with some strength training.