Regular exercise may help overweight children in the classroom, improving their abilities to think, plan and do math, suggests a new study published in the journal Health Psychology.
Researchers at Georgia Health Sciences University worked with 171 children between the ages of seven and 11, who had been classified as overweight and sedentary, and introduced them to a program of regular vigorous exercise.
The children who began to work out the most – doing 40 minutes of exercise after school every day – showed the greatest improvement, scoring an average of 3.8 points higher on standardized intelligence tests. Those who worked out 20 minutes a day experienced a similar but lesser benefit.
For those who exercised regularly, MRIs showed increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain responsible for complex thinking, decision making and social behaviour.
"I hope these findings will help re-establish physical activity’s important place in the schools in helping kids stay physically well and mentally sharp. For children to reach their potential, they need to be active," said Catherine Davis, one of the study’s authors.