Physical activity or physical exercise act against the sedentary lifestyle-induced health matters such as cognitive decline or neurodegenerative diseases. Physical exercise and physical activity is important for people of all age groups that not only could enhance mental capacity and social interactions development of pre-school aged children, but also could maintain and ameliorate muscle strengthening and health condition such as high blood pressure of old adults. Physical exercise also, acts as gene modulator which develops brain function due to structural and functional changes such as neurogenesis, glycogenesis, brain volumes, white matter integrity, neurotrophies levels and or cognitive performance [1,2].

  Physical exercise conveys protective effects against cognitive functions and structures that decline especially of cognitive functions that relay on experiences (e.g. memory) [3]. Physical exercises also cause biological effects such as hippocampal neuroplasticity, prevention of hippocampal volume atrophy, increase grey matter volume in frontal and hippocampal region, and reduce damage in grey matter. It has been shown that physical exercise-induced cardiovascular fitness and increased blood flow lead to positive changes in hippocampus volume and causes better memory scores and enhances cognitive function in both young and older adults. Moreover, physically active children act much better on perceptual and verbal test while comparing to sedentary children at the same age. Physical exercise directly affects synaptic structure and enhances synaptic plasticity in hippocampus and facilitates spatial learning. In response to physical exercise, long-term potentiation (LTP) cause long-lasting increase in signal transmission and considered as physiologic base for learning. LTP is usually accompanied by increase of dendrite length and complexity. Physical exercise has an influence on hippocampus neurogenesis proliferation and function of nerve system which in turn influence LTP and memory formation [4].

References

1. Di Liegro CM., et al. "Physical Activity and Brain Health”. Genes 10.9 (2019).
2. Mandolesi L., et al. "Effects of Physical Exercise on Cognitive Functioning and Wellbeing: Biological and Psychological Benefits”. Frontiers in Psychology 9.509 (2018).
3. Duzel E., et al. “Can physical exercise in old age improve memory and hippocampal function?" Brain: A Journal of Neurology 139.3 (2016) :662-673.
4. Cotman CW., et al. "Exercise builds brain health: key roles of growth factor cascades and inflammation". Trends in Neurosciences 30.9 (2017): 464-472.
5. Cobianchi S., et al. "Neuroprotective Effects of Exercise Treatments After Injury: The Dual Role of Neurotrophic Factors”. Current Neuropharmacology 15. 4 (2017): 495-518.
6. Gowder SJ. “Nephrotoxicity of bisphenol A (BPA) - an updated review”. Current Molecular Pharmacology 6.3 (2013): 163-172. 
7. Gowder SJT and McMartin KE. “Methods to evaluate the effect of ethanol on the folate analogue, fluorescein methotrexate uptake in human proximal tubular cells”. Advances in Pharmacological Sciences (2009). 
8. Mehta SK and Gowder SJT. “Alcoholism and The Brain Architecture”. Journal of Neurology and Neurobiology 2.4 (2016). 
9. Alrashdi AS and Gowder SJT. “Is AD, A Major Threat to Innocent Farmers?” Acta Scientific Neurology 2.12 (2019): 01-02. 
10. Gowder SJT and Shivani L. “Critical Analysis of the Status of Health Education”. Biomedical Research and Reviews 3.1(2020): 116.

Citation

Citation: Mahsa R M Mansouri and Sivakumar J T Gowder. “Critical Evaluation of Physical Exercise on Brain Structure and Function".Acta Scientific Neurology 3.2 (2020): 01-02.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Mahsa R M Mansouri and Sivakumar J T Gowder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.