chris_com283
11-02-2010, 03:49 PM
A new study published in the journal Nature finds that learning to juggle may cause certain areas of your brain to grow.
The finding challenges conventional wisdom the structure of the brain cannot change except through aging and disease. Previous studies have shown learning can result in changes in brain activity. But this latest study demonstrates an anatomical change as a result of learning - that is, the brain size actually expands.
German researchers divided 24 non-jugglers into two groups and assigned one group to practice juggling for three months. The scientists performed brain scans on the volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, before and after they learned to juggle.
The type of MRI scans the researchers used allowed them to focus on structural changes rather than changes in brain activity. Using a sophisticated analysis technique called voxel-based morphology, the researchers were then able to investigate changes in brain gray matter, the area of the brain that consists mostly of the cell bodies of neurons rather than the connective fibers.
The study found that volunteers who did not train to juggle showed no difference in their brain scans over the three-month period. However, those who now acquired the skill demonstrated an increase in gray matter in two areas of the brain involved in visual and motor activity, the mid-temporal area and the posterior intraparietal sulcus.
Scientists defined increases as a bigger volume and higher density of gray matter in those areas.
While the increase in brain size appears to be due to an expansion in gray matter area, the nature of this increase is not clear. Since the study focused on gray matter, the researchers were primarily looking at changes in cells rather than their connections.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5615.php
The finding challenges conventional wisdom the structure of the brain cannot change except through aging and disease. Previous studies have shown learning can result in changes in brain activity. But this latest study demonstrates an anatomical change as a result of learning - that is, the brain size actually expands.
German researchers divided 24 non-jugglers into two groups and assigned one group to practice juggling for three months. The scientists performed brain scans on the volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, before and after they learned to juggle.
The type of MRI scans the researchers used allowed them to focus on structural changes rather than changes in brain activity. Using a sophisticated analysis technique called voxel-based morphology, the researchers were then able to investigate changes in brain gray matter, the area of the brain that consists mostly of the cell bodies of neurons rather than the connective fibers.
The study found that volunteers who did not train to juggle showed no difference in their brain scans over the three-month period. However, those who now acquired the skill demonstrated an increase in gray matter in two areas of the brain involved in visual and motor activity, the mid-temporal area and the posterior intraparietal sulcus.
Scientists defined increases as a bigger volume and higher density of gray matter in those areas.
While the increase in brain size appears to be due to an expansion in gray matter area, the nature of this increase is not clear. Since the study focused on gray matter, the researchers were primarily looking at changes in cells rather than their connections.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5615.php