Physical Activity Influences on the Human Brain

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Summary of the Research Article
Critical Evaluation of Media Claim
References

Introduction

As it is known, active exercises help to improve not only a physical but also mental state, helping to better focus on goals and achieve high brain efficiency. In the article “The Time Course Effect of Moderate Intensity Exercise on Response Execution and Response Inhibition” written by Joyce, Graydon, McMorris, and Davranche (2009), the authors seek to find a relationship between how quickly tasks are performed if a person is actively engaged in sports. The researchers want to determine the relationship between speed of response and specific work and identify how often a person should do physical exercises. The stated objective is achieved by testing a group of volunteers in the laboratory and evaluating the results demonstrated by them and comparing the indicators obtained.

Summary of the Research Article

The authors in their work sought to trace the relationship between the cognitive functions of the human brain and how specifically physical activity influences them (Joyce et al., 2009). The primary goal of the scientists was to determine how the quality of work with particular and limited time changes if people are given a specific task and asked to perform a series of physical exercises. It was assumed that there would be a difference in indicators if a person did that job without preliminary preparation and practicing sports.

As a target group, university students were tested whose average age was twenty-three. These people had not previously participated in such experiments; none of them suffered from neurological or other dangerous diseases. The study was conducted in several stages, and participants underwent specific tests every day at the same time in order to reduce the risk of changes caused by different time of the day and brain activity.

Primary Hypothesis

The primary hypothesis put forward by the authors of the study was the following: a particular set of physical exercises that are performed in parallel with using cognitive functions of the brain allows better coping with all the tasks and speeds up the decision process (Joyce et al., 2009). As critical objectives, it was decided to use stop-signal tests. It was planned that the participants of the two groups would show different results during the two main sections when the experiment was conducted.

Methodology of the Experiment

For the study, the authors used a practical approach to solve specific tasks (Joyce et al., 2009). As a method of analysis, a mixed research was taken as a basis since not only questions and oral tests were applied during the work but also the number of participants was evaluated. The results obtained were calculated according to the volume of members and their indicators. The data were analyzed and, based on available results, it was suggested that complicated physical load could affect the properties of human cognitive functions.

Findings and Conclusions

As the authors claim, their study proved that speed of responses made after physical exercises could increase (Joyce et al., 2009). Also, in the process of work, it was revealed that a preliminary activity does not interfere with the performance of particular tasks; on the contrary, it improves the response to set goals and helps to orient more quickly. According to Asp (2017), various indicators of the human brain work are tightly connected with the body indicators, and if there are any changes in performing the same activities, results may be different. It means that if people do the same work differently, for example, solve tasks either after physical activities or without them, the brain will react individually to these changes.

The authors confirm that their assumptions turned out to be correct and argue that additional research in this area can bring even more evidence to their work (Joyce et al., 2009). Cognitive functions of the human brain largely depend on the state of the organism. Hormones produced in the course of specific activities affect the productivity and quality of the work performed; they are important indicators of the human mood and the manner of work. All the results may be used as a basis for the following studies.

Critical Evaluation of Media Claim

The study conducted by Joyce et al. (2009) fully supports the claim in the media article written by Asp (2017) and helps to make conclusions concerning the use of the authors’ research in the process of studying the stated issue. First, the title of the two works is similar, the only difference is that a scientific paper has complex subtitles, and the media article is designed for a large number of readers and is framed in a more journalistic style.

Secondly, the goal of both papers is to determine the effect of physical activity on accelerating the brain and to test how exercises contribute to a faster response to specific tasks. In addition to the impact on the brain activity, Asp (2017) also emphasizes a positive effect of exercises on the general condition of the body. Therefore, it may be the only significant difference between the two articles.

References

Asp, K. (2017). How exercise boosts our brainpower. Web.

Joyce, J., Graydon, J., McMorris, T., & Davranche, K. (2009). The time course effect of moderate intensity exercise on response execution and response inhibition. Brain and Cognition, 71(1), 14-19.

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