ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights how physical activity and exercise that is engagement in purposeful physical activity to improve physiological capacity improve cognitive function in the areas of thinking and memory. It presents model of the promotion of resilience to age-related and pathological degeneration by building a biological reserve of the brain. The chapter reviews the evidence for the benefits of physical activity and exercise to the brain, which has been reported in both animal and human studies. In humans, it is challenging to determine specific effects of physical activity on brain function in light of ethical constraints, but noninvasive neuroimaging in tandem with cognitive-behavioral testing is informative of the impact of exercise on the human brain. Seminal research on physical activity and cognitive function appeared in the 1970s with animal and human investigations into the role of dopamine and reaction time, with comparisons of young and older subjects.
