Starting the day with physical activity is good for the brain of children

To promote the well-being and brain health of children, they must practice physical activity, and this as soon as it wakes up. This is what a study suggests, published in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. As part of it, researchers at the University of Grenada (Spain) examined associations between individual and combined morning habits, such as active journeys to school, physical activity before school, breakfast and restful sleep, and the microstructure of the white substance. As a reminder, this part of the brain is the fabric composed of nerve fibers which forms the brain communication network, allowing the transmission of information and the coordination of various functions. In addition, they wanted to determine whether the results associated with this microstructure were linked to mental health in young people.

Evaluate the link between morning habits and brain and mental health

To carry out the work, the team recruited 103 children, aged 8 to 11, overweight or obese. By fulfilling a questionnaire, the latter provided information on their morning habits and gave indications on their mental health (for example, happiness, self -esteem, optimism, positive and negative emotions, stress, depression and anxiety). Participants also undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using the imagery of the diffusion tensor, which measures the dissemination of water molecules in the brain tissues, in order to obtain information on the microstructural organization of the white substance beams. Scientists have analyzed various measures linked to the integrity and organization of nerve fibers and used the probabilistic leaflet of fibers to map the white substance paths in the brain.

Combine late morning activities for better white substance microstructure

Examined independently, morning habits were not linked to the microstructure of the white substance. However, the combination of morning habits was associated with better structural integrity of brain tissue and myelin, namely the substance that isolates nerve fibers. According to the authors, children who practiced more morning activities had higher fractional anisotropy (indicating better integrity of the brain fabric) and lower radial diffuse (indicating better integrity of myelin) in the region of the upper longitudinal bundle of the brain. In addition, young people with better integrity of the brain fabric and myelin tend to be happier.