OK, so the brain is not a muscle.  But your muscles and your mind are connected in many, yet to be fully understood, ways.  To date, the data suggest that people who are more active have better cognition or simply, better ability to think.  Many researchers are working to unravel the mysteries of how moving more may help keep our brains limber as we age.

One of the challenges is accurately determining just how active people are.  Researchers have used recall questionnaires or interviews to get study participants to describe their physical activities.  Self-reporting one’s physical activity level usually relies on the participant:

  • remembering what activities they did in the preceding days, usually at least seven days. 
  • characterizing each activity by its perceived (key word is perceived) intensity level -- light, moderate, or vigorous. 

See where I am going with this?  Relying on memory and intensity level estimations in a group of people (i.e., older adults) who are -- because of the simple fact they are aging -- at risk of cognitive decline may confound the analyses and conclusions that can be made from such studies.

So one group of scientists used technology to improve on the methods employed in previous studies.1  They had over 500 men and women who were in their early 80’s wear an accelerometer for about 9 days.  An accelerometer is device that measures movement AND  intensity for a more accurate, objective assessment of total physical activity.  Using measured activity, these researchers found that increased physical activity was associated with better cognition as measured by an overall cognition score as well as scores on subscales related to different types of memory and perception.

“Move it or lose it” is a common motivating statement in the fitness world.  It means you need to work your muscles to maintain your fitness.  Research is suggesting that the same saying could also apply to  staying active to prevent loss of cognitive function as we get older.


1 Buchman AS, Wilson RS, and Bennett DA.  Total daily activity is associated with cognition in older adults.  American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.  2008;16(8):697-701.