Aerobic Fitness Benefits Children’s Brains In Several Ways, Study Finds

A U.S. study that used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to analyze brain tissue in nine- to 10-year-old children found that those who did more aerobic exercising had more fibrous and compact white-matter tracts in the brain associated with attention and memory. White matter tracts carry nerve signals from one brain region to another. Previous studies showed that aerobic exercise leads to greater volumes of gray matter in children’s brains associated with memory and learning. The researchers are now studying whether children benefit from beginning a new aerobic fitness program and maintain it over time.