Essays

Role of physical activity on human brain functions

SANDRA MOROVIĆ ; Aviva Medical Center, Nemetova 2, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
VIDA DEMARIN ; Aviva Medical Center, Nemetova 2, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Mens sana in corpore sano. This famous sentence has been around for
almost 2000 years. Back in the first and second century a.d., Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, a Roman poet spoke of health, mental and physical, and their dependence on one another. But, it was not until the 1990.s, when science allowed us to find proof for this idea, and until the discovery of neurotrophic factors which changed around the way physical activity and brain plasticity is viewed. In 1986 Rita Levi Montalcini and Stanly Cohen received a Nobel Prize in medicine for the discovery of neurotrophins. Neurotrophins are proteins, belonging to a group of growth factors with special effect on neurons. They signal nerve cells to grow, survive, and differentiate. It is one neurotrophic factor in particular, the Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which is important for long term memory, affects neurons in central and peripheral nervous system, helps survival of existing neurons, growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses, and its secretion is encouraged by physical activity.

Keywords

Physical Activity; BDNF; Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor; Cognition; Physical Health

Hrčak ID:

126372

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/126372

Publication date:

31.7.2014.

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