A new study has found that short sessions of exercise improve self control.
A team of researchers conducted a study to see if there is a link between exercise and self control. They found that short sessions of intensive exercising can improve a person's self control. This is because it increases blood and oxygen flow to the pre-frontal cortex.
The team of researchers went through previous studies that were conducted on what impacts physical exercise has on higher brain functions, such as memory, concentration, planning and decision-making. These studies were generally conducted on participants divided into three age groups - 6 to 12 year olds; 13 to 17 year olds; and 18 to 35 year olds.
Twenty four relevant studies were found. Nineteen of them had 586 participants and were conducted on the impact of short bouts of exercise on the brain. The remaining 5 studies were conducted on 358 participants and were about the impact of regular exercise on the brain.
The last five studies that were conducted on the impact of regular exercise on the brain didn't show much effect on higher brain functions. However, researchers concluded that these studies were far less in number and the results were too inconsistent to take them as a final conclusion.
However, the first 19 studies showed that short bouts of exercise did boost higher brain function in all three age groups. Four studies looked at the impact of this type of exercise on working memory, but only in young adults, and the numbers were insufficient to draw conclusions on the impact. However, 12 of the 19 studies looked at self control, and the analysis indicated that short bouts of exercise did improve this higher brain function across all three age groups, registering a small to moderate impact.
"These positive effects of physical exercise on inhibition/interference control are encouraging and highly relevant, given the importance of inhibitory control and interference control in daily life," they write. "Inhibition is essential for regulation of behaviour and emotions in social, academic, and sport settings."
The findings were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
