"Running! If there’s any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can’t think of what it might be. In running the mind flees with the body, the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms."
- Joyce Carol OatesThe Guardian’s awesomely-named Ian Sample writes about a Cambridge University study showing that “a few days of running led to the growth of hundreds of thousands of new brain cells that improved the ability to recall memories without confusing them.”
The new brain cells appeared in a region that is linked to the formation and recollection of memories. The work reveals why jogging and other aerobic exercise can improve memory and learning, and potentially slow down the deterioration of mental ability that happens with old age.
[via Laura.]
