“We have a brain for only one reason: to produce complex and adaptive movements as the only way we have to influence the world around us.”
Daniel Wolpert
Neuroscience currently indicates that an enriched environment, whether cognitive, physical or social, together with the diversity of stimulation, provides greater brain stimulation and enhances human neuroplasticity. Based on this, an important field of knowledge has been created that studies the role of the environment as a factor of neuronal stimulation, ranging from architecture to pedagogy, including Neuroexercise.
Through movement we interact with and influence our surroundings, which in turn are most relevant to the brain. Part of the effect of an enriched environment is through the performance of complex movements and the acquisition of motor skills. This complex coordination of brain and body capacities, which requires synchronisation with the environment in which it occurs, can demand the maximum of the brain’s capacity.
It is known that EF and cognitive exercise, separately, are two types of promising non-pharmacological interventions for their neuroprotective effects. We must understand movement as a cognitive activity that can be modulated to enhance the level of neural stimulation and the functional capacity of the brain. Novelty and complexity as well as repetition and programmed neural rest are important factors in Enriched Exercise to increase the neurostimulatory level of the experience. This will increase the cerebral metabolic expenditure which is interesting for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
The concept of Enriched Exercise aims to emphasise the importance of physical exercise for brain development and health. Some studies point to the benefits of complementary physical-cognitive work, but in the field of health there are no references to the benefits of simultaneous work such as that proposed in Enriched Exercise.
In ENRICHED EXERCISE there are activities with dual tasks: physical and mental that must be attended to at the same time:
– The purely physical adaptations of the support systems involved in the functioning of the brain, such as cardiovascular, respiratory, muscular and metabolic.
– And the increase of the neurostimulatory level, which involves increasing perception, the complexity of motor skills and the level of cognition.
This concept understands the brain functionally as a muscle, the more it is stimulated the more it develops its functional capacity. The brain needs to be effective, but above all it needs to be efficient, and the best way to achieve this is through prediction. This prediction, which reduces energy consumption and increases its efficiency, produces a paradox: it is less stimulating and reduces its capacity for development. Its adaptation makes it less adaptable. It does not require an exact perception of the environment, as it implements already known responses that have been given before in the same or similar situations.
Neuroplasticity should be the focus in a Neuroexercise programme based on the concept of Enriched Physical Exercise. New or complex experiences should be offered that reduce their predictability and stimulate patterns of mental activity to create more connections between different areas of the brain and increase the size and complexity of dendrites and nerve cells.
Enriched Exercise seeks to provide the individual with a broad spectrum of experiences in the form of movements that allow it to generate desirable changes in the brain structure. Novelty, change, variability, transformation and learning are a major part of the development of a Neuroexercise proposal. New challenges, new exercises and types of activities, new kinetic chains, new movements, different planes, intensities, angles, force vectors, acceleration, speeds, types and angles of contraction, new spaces, new schedules, new materials, etc. are proposed. This constant variability is fundamental for neural stimulation and to introduce a level of challenge that maintains motivation.
We know that any type of physical practice is beneficial for the brain. But this prescription is a basic and impersonal guide and fails to explore the full potential benefits. Understanding how the human brain works and the effect of Physical Exercise on its structure and function, allows the development of a systematic approach to designing NeuroExercise approaches such as EXERCISE 4 BRAIN. That plan and organise physical stimuli to enhance neuroplasticity and angiogenesis. Which are related to the improvement of cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, information analysis, decision-making, creativity, etc. The aim is to improve the health of the organism, both physical and mental, because the brain functions better when the organism is healthy.
This perspective represents a new opportunity to discover new practical applications of exercise in health. Using physical exercise as a cognitive activity enhances neuroplasticity that create the opportunity to change life, society itself and the next generations.