Research
Hormonal
Acute exercise increases brain blood flow redistribution to areas controlling locomotor and vestibular functions, and long-term training is associated with higher cognitive performance and potentially larger brain size.
Exercise helps your brain by directing blood to active areas and promoting factors that support neuron health. Staying physically active is a key strategy for maintaining cognitive function as you age.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
blood flow is directed to the areas controlling locomotor, vestibular, cardiorespiratory, and visual functions... a physically active lifestyle has been shown to lead to higher cognitive performance and delayed or prevented neurological conditions in humans
Why this rating
Supported by human imaging studies and epidemiological data, though direct human studies on some mechanisms (e.g., neurogenesis) are lacking.
Source
Organ-Specific Physiological Responses to Acute Physical Exercise and Long-Term Training in Humans
Ilkka Heinonen et al. · Physiology · 2014
DOI 10.1152/physiol.00067.2013
narrative_reviewCited 127×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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