​Physically Fit Kids Have Faster Neuro-electrical Brain Responses: Study

Physically fit children have faster neuro-electrical brain responses during reading than their less-fit peers. These differences correspond with better language skills in the children who are fit, according to a new study published in the journal Brain and Cognition.

The research does not prove that better level of fitness directly influences the changes seen in the electrical activity of the brain, but offer a potential mechanism to explain why fitness correlates so closely with better cognitive performance on a variety of tasks.

Charles Hillman, the professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois, led the research. "All we know is there is something different about higher and lower fit kids," he commented on the outcome.

"Now whether that difference is caused by fitness or maybe some third variable that (affects) both fitness and language processing, we don't know yet," he added.

The researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to capture some of the electrical impulses associated with brain activity.

The readouts from the electrodes look like seismic readings captured during an earthquake and characteristic wave patterns are associated with different tasks. These patterns are called event-related potentials (ERPs).

ERPs vary according to the person being evaluated and the nature of the stimulus, said graduate student Mark Scudder. For instance, if you hear or read a word in a sentence that makes sense, the component of the brainwave form, known as the N400, is less pronounced than if you read a sentence in which the word no longer makes sense, he explained.

The researchers found that children who were more fit (as measured by oxygen uptake during exercise) had higher amplitude N400 and P600 waves than their less-fit peers when reading normal or nonsensical sentences. The N400 also had shorter latency in children who were fit, suggesting that they processed the same information more quickly than their peers.

These differences in brain activity corresponded to better reading performance and language comprehension in the healthier children, the researchers said.
(Image: Thinkstock)