Juggling Enhances Connections in the Brain
I just finished reading the article, Juggling Enhances Connections in The Brain. The article shares something that hasn’t been spoken about too much in the US. It shares research from the University of Oxford about how learning to juggle leads to changes in the white matter of the brain.
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The research was funded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council and was published in the Nature Neuroscience journal. It states that improved connectivity in parts of the brain involved making movements that are necessary to catching balls while juggling.
Dr Heidi Johansen-Berg of the Department of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford is the leader of this study and stated “In fact we find the structure of the brain is ripe for change. We’ve shown that is possible for the brain to condition its own wiring system to operate more efficiently.”
The researchers at the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) wanted to see if changes in the white matter of the brain could be seen within a health adults brain while they were learning a new task or skill.
What is White Matter in the Brain?
White matter is a bundle of long nerve fibres that move electrical signals between your nerve cells and these nerve fibres connect different parts of your brain. Grey matter consists of the nerve cell bodies where the processing and computation in your brain is done. When you experience new things, there has been a change in the grey matter in your brain.
The excerpt below was taken directly from the article:
‘We have demonstrated that there are changes in the white matter of the brain – the bundles of nerve fibres that connect different parts of the brain – as a result of learning an entirely new skill,’ explains Dr Johansen-Berg.
A group of young healthy adults, none of whom could juggle, was divided into two groups each of 24 people. One of the groups was given weekly training sessions in juggling for six weeks and asked to practice 30 minutes every day. Both groups were scanned using diffusion MRI before and after the six-week period.
Juggling is one of the best ways to enhance the connections in your brain. If you want to improve your brain, it’s smart for you to learn how to juggle.
