Sports is the Best Way to Boost the Brain Health

Brain activity is healthier in athletes who can hear better - Research findings: At her lab "Brain Volts" at North Western University, Nina Kraus and her colleagues, with the help of series of electrodes on the scalp, recorded the electricity a brain produces in response to a sound. By recording the electricity and play it out in a speaker, one can listen to the brain and see how well the job is done. In turn, it is easy to find out the health of the brain and the nervous system.

"Usually, the brain is hungry for information and produces electrical activity if it lacks such information. This electrical activity is a hindrance because it gets in the way of making sense of sound. An analysis was done between non-contact and contact-sports persons, which unleashed a secret. Compared to non -athletes, elite athletes can better process the external sound. The sports activity not only improves physical and cardiovascular fitness but mental fitness too.

A new study is conducted with 495 North Western student-athletes, and 493 age and sex matched control students. "Making sense of sounds is one of the hardest jobs we assign to our brain. The brain should string the pitch, timing, and harmonics to understand the meaning within microseconds. No variation is found, and all athletes respond the same way. But as years pass by, the research further widened to decipher how it may possibly differ from one sport to another." Krauss said.

There are ways to improve the brain's performing speed, such as learning a second language, playing instruments that help in quickening the process of the brain. But it is completely unrelated to the neural dampening that occurs with athletes. This current research with background noise issues is helpful, which results in new techniques that can be useful to those with auditory disorders. "Physical activity is synonymous with a healthier nervous system with a sound brain. With a healthier nervous system, it is easy to handle other health-related problems," Krauss concluded.