Brain Growth

It was once thought that you were born with a set number of brain cells and they just decreased as you got older. Researchers at Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered walking three hours per week for three month increased many new neurons to grow causing a measurable increase to the size of the participant’s brains. The new neurons tended to grow around areas with well established existing connection and replaced ones that where nonfunctioning. The structure of the brain that grew the most was the hippocampus, the area most involved with memory and cognition.