Following the speech of Dr. José
Ramón Alonso Peña, from the University of Salamanca, during EFNA 2017, we will
discuss several key issues:
The human being is a unique functional entity, we must detach ourselves
from the mind-body idea as separate elements. We are a being whose different
parts are interconnected in multiple ways; An event that takes place in any of
them can develop the most different repercussions in other areas and at all
levels.
The brain responds to challenges, the more we demand, the better it
works. In this sense, if we join the cognitive requirement to a series of
healthy habits and a good deployment of tasks where the executive capacity is
exercised, far better. Therefore, generating enriched environments
where there are many stimulating opportunities, stands as the best environment
for learning and development.
The importance of physical activity is not only limited to be a
precursor of good health, healthy habits that also keep away from risky and
protective behaviours due to sedentary illnesses. It represents by itself a
factor of protection against natural aging and consequent deterioration of our
functions (mental agility, decision-making processes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's,
sarcopenia and a long etc.) And this, produces it with such power, that it does
not exists in all the pharmacology anything that comes close, not
even far, to the multitude of beneficial effects that exercise produces in our
body.
Exercise has a positive impact on our physical, emotional, but also cognitive health. The benefits of physical activity on the brains of elderly people have been demonstrated for some years now. And in recent times, there have also been investigations that show its importance on the brains of children and adolescents. Besides being a great resource to combat the dreaded chronic stress or improve well-being, exercise can benefit the functioning of executive functions that have a direct impact on the academic and personal development of students.
Neuroplasticity: phenomenon by which the brain is modified throughout life in response to environmental conditions. Daily routines can cause the brain to develop and generate not only more refined motor responses, but also favor mental processes such as memory and learning processes. This is because the exercise causes the development of a molecule called BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) that improves neuronal connections (GÓMEZ-PINILLA, F. and col. Voluntary exercise induces BDNF mediated mechanism that promotes neuroplasticity J. Neurophysiol (2002); 88 (5): 2187-95), in addition to increasing the level of neurotransmitters essential for good learning, such as dopamine (motivation), serotonin (mood) or noradrenaline (attention), for example.
If the exercise is abandoned, the production of BDNF goes down, but the brain stores what we might call a cognitive reserve that will be put into operation if physical activity is again carried out, thus recovering the capacity for adaptation by the neuroplasticity that our brain recovers through the brain. increase in BDNF.
Children or adolescents who practice sports and have a better cardiovascular capacity, have a greater hippocampus and, as a consequence, perform better in tasks that require explicit memory (Chaddock et al., 2010, see figure 4).
Figure 4
And those students who perform academic tests related to reading comprehension, spelling or arithmetic after a moderate 20-minute aerobic activity (walking or running on tape, for example), obtain better results than those who have been in a passive situation in that time interval (Hillman et al., 2009). Even, simple stoppages of 4 minutes in the daily academic activity of children in primary education to perform a series of rapid movements are sufficient to optimize the necessary attention required by the subsequent task and improve performance in it (Ma et al., 2015 see figure 5). This will be very useful for all students, in general, but especially for those with ADHD, who have greater difficulties in focusing attention for extended periods of time. The symptoms that characterize these children with ADHD seem to be reduced when they can move and play in natural environments. And it has also proven useful to combine physical exercise with greater mental activity as occurs, for example, in the case of martial arts. A three-month taekwondo program improved the processes of self-regulation that enabled improvements, both behavioral and academic, in the children who participated in them (Lakes and Hoyt, 2004).
Figure 5
The educational implications of these investigations suggest the need to devote more time to physical education and not to relegate it to the last hours of the school day, as is traditionally done. This has been proven in practice, for example, when physical exercise programs have been applied before the start of the school day in which children walk or run for 15-20 minutes, improve their behavior, their concentration during tasks and their willingness to learn in the later hours (Stylianou et al., 2016). The latest recommendations on the adequate time to optimize the health and academic performance of the students are the following: 150 minutes per week in primary school and 225, at least, in secondary school (Castelli et al., 2015).
Along with the necessary role of physical education, it is also essential to teach students the importance of sleep and nutrition over learning, both in the short and long term.
