Research has shown that people who exercise do better on memory tests. Now a new Columbia University Medical Center study explains specifically what exercise does within the brain. Exercise, the researchers found, targets a region of the brain within the hippocampus, known as the dentate gyrus, which underlies normal age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most adults.
This finding is significant because it was accomplished via the first-ever observation of neurogenesis, the growth of neurons, within a living brain. Using an MRI imaging technique developed at Columbia, the researchers were able to identify neurogenesis within the dentate gyrus region following exercise. Previously, researchers were only able to prove neurogenesis upon postmortem exam in animal studies.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070320073516.htm
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