Can you teach an old dog new tricks? The long-standing assumption is that with old age comes degrading mental abilities, including a more difficult time picking up new skills and knowledge. That might be some cases true, the body surely loses some of it’s ability to heal itself and to rewire the brain, but we may be able to circumvent some of that.

We might be able to keep our minds sharp and open to greater learning through exercise. By getting blood and oxygen pumping through our system we can promote the restructuring of our memories and strengthening of our skills. An article on Newsmax details one study showing this effect:

Moderate levels of exercise are not only good for the body, but also the mind, according to a new study that links activity to an increase the brain’s lifelong flexibility and capability for learning.

The visual cortex of the brain, which processes visual information, loses the ability to “rewire” itself with age, making it more difficult for adults to recover from injuries and illness, said Claudia Lunghi, a neuroscientist at the University of Pisa and one of the study’s authors, The New York Times reports.

But exercise appears to improve the function of this part of the brain.

While the visual cortex is only a specific region in the brain, this raises positive hopes about the brain on the whole, and how exercise might be essential to mental health. Check out all the detail of the study over on Newsmax.

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