Juggling Increases Brain Power
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Complex tasks such as juggling produce significant changes to the structure of the brain, according to scientists at Oxford University.
In the journal, Nature Neuroscience, the scientists say they saw a 5% increase in white matter - the cabling network of the brain.
The scientists studied a group of 24 healthy young adults, none of whom could juggle.
They divided them into two groups.
One of the groups was given weekly training sessions in juggling for six weeks and was asked to practice 30 minutes every day the other 12 continued as normal.
After training, the 12 jugglers could perform at least two continuous cycles of the classic three ball cascade.
At the six week point, a 5% increase in white matter was shown in a rear section of the brain called the intraparietal sulcus for the jugglers.
This area has been shown to contain nerves that react to us reaching and grasping for objects in our peripheral vision.
There was a great variation in the ability of the volunteers to juggle but all of them showed changes in white matter.
"This compliments other work showing grey matter changes with training and motivates further work to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying these effects."
Train the Brain and the Body will follow.
In the journal, Nature Neuroscience, the scientists say they saw a 5% increase in white matter - the cabling network of the brain.
The scientists studied a group of 24 healthy young adults, none of whom could juggle.
They divided them into two groups.
One of the groups was given weekly training sessions in juggling for six weeks and was asked to practice 30 minutes every day the other 12 continued as normal.
After training, the 12 jugglers could perform at least two continuous cycles of the classic three ball cascade.
At the six week point, a 5% increase in white matter was shown in a rear section of the brain called the intraparietal sulcus for the jugglers.
This area has been shown to contain nerves that react to us reaching and grasping for objects in our peripheral vision.
There was a great variation in the ability of the volunteers to juggle but all of them showed changes in white matter.
"This compliments other work showing grey matter changes with training and motivates further work to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying these effects."
Train the Brain and the Body will follow.
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