{"id":825,"date":"2015-02-21T15:42:19","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T15:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/?page_id=825"},"modified":"2018-04-28T01:25:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-28T01:25:55","slug":"neural-self-hacking-for-better-learning-exercise","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/librarianship\/consumer-health-librarianship\/neural-self-hacking-for-better-learning-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Neural Self-Hacking for Better Learning: Exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are steps that one can take to protect and strengthen the brain, particularly the hippocampus, so it continues to function well.\u00a0One\u00a0of these\u00a0is\u00a0getting regular exercise.<\/p>\n

Exercise.<\/h2>\n

There are two important chemicals that give the brain some resilience to the effects of stress. Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is a protein that plays a role in the development of nerve cells and later functions to protect them. (1). Exercise is known to increase the levels of BDNF in the hippocampus (2). Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system that is instrumental in disrupting the \u201canxiety feedback loop in the brain\u201d (3).<\/p>\n

Since being stress-free makes it easier to learn, activities that promote the production of these two substances along with serotonin is a natural way to boost the brain\u2019s ability to learn. What\u2019s even better is that randomized studies suggest that the effects of exercise as measured by hippocampal volume and prefrontal cortex pliability last for 6 months to a year (4).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. HOPES (US). Brain derived Neurotrophic factor (BDNF) [Internet]. Stanford (CA): Stanford University; 2010 May [cited 2015 Feb 20]. Available from:http:\/\/web.stanford.edu\/group\/hopes\/cgi-bin\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor-bdnf\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Xu B. BDNF(I)risin<\/em>g from Exercise. Cell Metab [Internet]. 2013 [cited 2015 Feb 20]; 18(5): 612\u2013614. Available from:http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24206660<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Austin D. Killing them Softly: Neuroscience Reveals how brain cells die from law school stress and how neural self-hacking can optimize cognitive performance. Loyola Law Rev. 2013;59(4):791-859).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Erickson K, Leckie R, Weinstein A. Physical activity, fitness, and gray matter volume. Neurobiology of Aging [Internet]. 2014[cited 2015 Feb 20];35 Suppl 2:S20-28. Available from:http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.neurobiolaging.2014.03.034<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Index<\/a><\/p>\n

          Next Post: Neural Self-Hacking for Better Learning: Sleep<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          There are steps that one can take to protect and strengthen the brain, particularly the hippocampus, so it continues to function well.\u00a0One\u00a0of these\u00a0is\u00a0getting regular exercise. Exercise. There are two important chemicals that give the brain some resilience to the effects of stress. Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is a protein that plays a role in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":691,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-825","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/825\/revisions\/860"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellenmetal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}