【ZT】搞体育能让孩子更聪明？

all4kids

原文地址：http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/phys-ed-can-exercise-make-kids-smarter/



Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

In an experiment published last month, researchers  recruited schoolchildren, ages 9 and 10, who lived near the  Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of  Illinois and asked them to run on a treadmill. The researchers  were hoping to learn more about how fitness affects the immature human  brain. Animal studies had already established that, when given access to  running wheels, baby rodents bulked up their brains, enlarging certain  areas and subsequently outperforming sedentary pups on rodent  intelligence tests. But studies of the effect of exercise on the actual  shape and function of children’s brains had not yet been tried.

So the researchers sorted the children, based on their treadmill  runs, into highest-, lowest- and median-fit categories. Only the most-  and least-fit groups continued in the study (to provide the greatest  contrast). Both groups completed a series of cognitive challenges  involving watching directional arrows on a computer screen and pushing  certain keys in order to test how well the children filter out  unnecessary information and attend to relevant cues. Finally, the  children’s brains were scanned, using magnetic resonance imaging  technology to measure the volume of specific areas.

Previous studies found that fitter kids generally scored better on  such tests. And in this case, too, those children performed better on  the tests. But the M.R.I.’s provided a clearer picture of how it might  work. They showed that fit children had significantly larger basal  ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and  “executive control,” or the ability to coordinate actions and thoughts  crisply. Since both groups of children had similar socioeconomic  backgrounds, body mass index and other variables, the researchers  concluded that being fit had enlarged that portion of their brains.
Meanwhile, in a separate, newly completed study by many of the same  researchers at the University of Illinois, a second group of 9- and  10-year-old children were also categorized by fitness levels and had  their brains scanned, but they completed different tests, this time  focusing on complex memory. Such thinking is associated with activity in  the hippocampus, a structure in the brain’s medial temporal lobes. Sure  enough, the M.R.I. scans revealed that the fittest children had heftier  hippocampi.
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The two studies did not directly overlap, but the researchers, in  their separate reports, noted that the hippocampus and basal ganglia  regions interact in the human brain, structurally and functionally.  Together they allow some of the most intricate thinking. If exercise is  responsible for increasing the size of these regions and strengthening  the connection between them, being fit may “enhance  neurocognition” in young people, the authors concluded.
These findings arrive at an important time. For budgetary and  administrative reasons, school boards are curtailing physical education,  while on their own, children grow increasingly sluggish. Recent  statistics from the Centers for Disease  Control and Prevention show that roughly a quarter of  children participate in zero physical activity outside of school.
At the same time, evidence accumulates about the positive impact of  even small amounts of aerobic activity. Past studies from the University  of Illinois found that “just 20 minutes of walking” before a test  raised children’s scores, even if the children were otherwise unfit or  overweight, says Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology at the  university and the senior author of many of the recent studies.
But it’s the neurological impact of sustained aerobic fitness in  young people that is especially compelling. A memorable years-long Swedish study published last year found that, among more than a  million 18-year-old boys who joined the army, better fitness was  correlated with higher I.Q.’s, even among identical twins. The fitter  the twin, the higher his I.Q. The fittest of them were also more likely  to go on to lucrative careers than the least fit, rendering them less  likely, you would hope, to live in their parents’ basements. No  correlation was found between muscular strength and I.Q. scores. There’s  no evidence that exercise leads to a higher I.Q., but the researchers  suspect that aerobic exercise, not strength training, produces specific  growth factors and proteins that stimulate the brain, said Georg Kuhn, a  professor at the University of Gothenburg and the senior author of the  study.
But for now, the takeaway is clear. “More aerobic exercise” for  young people, Mr. Kuhn said. Mr. Hillman agreed. So get kids moving, he added,  and preferably away from their Wiis. A still-unpublished study from his  lab compared the cognitive impact in young people of 20 minutes of  running on a treadmill with 20 minutes of playing sports-style video  games at a similar intensity. Running improved test scores immediately  afterward. Playing video games did not.

ziezo

不管怎么说，让孩子多锻炼都是最重要的，身体健康永远排在第一，至于IQ能否因此提高，倒不是主要目的了。

all4kids

哈，可是对有志于提升孩子IQ的父母来说，这可是一个好的理由，让更多的孩子从书海回归运动场。

all4kids

我儿子在小区里玩（踢足球），暑假和上学期间的周末玩伴就稍微多一些，平常则总是只有四五个孩子一起玩，其他孩子都见不到踪影的。——估计是在书山题海之中徜徉呢。

欣儿妈

我孩子体育活动多，我们倒没想过楼主引用的这个问题，目的很单纯，就是想让孩子开心、健康。现在的孩子似乎都没有时间玩，忙着语文数学英语钢琴美术这些事，看看教室里的小同学，三分之一已经戴上眼镜了。