Sport is good for the brain. Little by little we are discovering that physical exercise has positive effects on our executive functions , which are the set of mental capacities that are put in place when we want to achieve a goal, including working memory, planning, inhibition … but it is also It is true that there are people who for various reasons cannot perform vigorous physical exercise… what can they do to improve their brain?
A group of researchers from the University of Groningen concludes in a recent study published in the scientific journal PLOS One (2014) that total body vibration could be a possibility for them and for everyone.
The total or complete body vibration is an exercise in which the individual gets on a vibrating platform, on which active exercises can be performed simultaneously (active vibration), or simply let our body vibrate (passive vibration).
To try to prove their hypotheses, the study authors recruited a total of 133 healthy adults who went through six sessions of passive total body vibration sitting in a chair on the vibrating platform alternated with six sessions of control (without vibration).
All sessions lasted two minutes and were followed by several executive function tests and three minutes of rest (in the same position but without vibration).
Among the results found, it was observed that after the total body vibration sessions, the scores improved in two of the applied tests that were taken as measures of attention and inhibition capacities , the Color Block Test and the Stroop Test.
These data, although preliminary, indicate that it is worth further investigating the effects of total body vibration as an alternative to improve brain function in people who, due to their circumstances, cannot perform more active physical exercise.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
