x
Multitasking gets a bad rap. But it turns out that, in certain instances, doubling up on healthy habits — exercising while socializing, for example — could help improve both your brain and your fitness game. In fact, a growing body of research challenges the notion that multitasking always causes one or both activities to suffer.
That may be reason enough to suggest that you and your book club take your next meeting outside so you can walk while you talk. But what other tasks, when performed in tandem, might boost brain power? One recent study found that working out while learning a language could help people to better master it.
The 40 subjects, all college students from China, were divided into two groups. One rode exercise bikes at a gentle pace while attempting to memorize a set of English vocabulary words. The other sat still as they studied. The student riders not only performed better on subsequent vocabulary tests than those who hadn’t biked, but, a month later, they also remembered words more accurately than their sedentary counterparts.
Learning a language as an adult certainly has its challenges. “When you’re a child, the brain is still going through a growth phase and organizing, so it’s much more receptive to learning a new language. As you get older, the brain’s not as plastic, which makes it more difficult,” explains Julia Rao, assistant professor of neurology at NYU Langone Medical Center and a neuropsychologist at the hospital’s Pearl I. Barlow Center for Memory Evaluation and Treatment.
When asked if he thinks cycling could have a similar effect on older adults looking to expand their rudimentary knowledge of French or Spanish, study coauthor Simone Sulpizio says this one study isn’t enough to draw that conclusion. But he adds that a number of studies on both animals and people in recent years suggest that physical activity improves memory and facilitates learning. “Exercising is known to be a protective factor against cognitive decline,” he notes. Sulpizio adds that walking or another low-impact exercise would likely yield results similar to those achieved by the pedalers.
Interestingly, a University of Florida study in which older adults took to stationary bikes while completing 12 cognitive tasks — such as saying a word when a blue star flashed on a screen or reciting back lists of words —resulted in the subjects increasing their cycling speed by about 25 percent. The researchers hypothesize that the cognitive arousal that occurs when people anticipate completing cognitive tasks may have led the participants to pedal faster. Rao, who was not involved in the study, says that this arousal can also improve performance of motor or cognitive tasks, due to the release of neurotransmitters that improve the brain’s speed and efficiency.
Given this win-win scenario, one might wonder if there are other tasks that, when performed simultaneously, could benefit your gray matter. Rao believes that the answer is yes — as long as the tasks activate different areas of the brain. “If a task requires a heavy attentional burden, doing something else at the same time may not be a good idea.” For instance, listening to an audiobook while performing a passive activity, such as walking the dog or gardening, will activate the frontal lobes involved with attention and visual imagery. But doing so while performing a second task that also requires you to focus intently, say, driving or doing your taxes, may not be such a good idea
