A new study claims that 9 to 10 year old kids who are aerobically fit tend to have thinner gray matter, which could make them better at math skills than other kids.
Lead researcher Laura Chaddock-Heyman of the University of Illinois said that gray-matter loss during child development was part of healthy maturation, adding that gray-matter thinning was the sculpting of a fully formed, healthy brain.
Heyman said that they found that higher-fit 9- and 10-year-olds showed a decrease in gray-matter thickness in some areas known to change with development.
In the study, 48 children, all of whom had completed a maximal oxygen-uptake fitness test on a treadmill.
The researchers imaged the children’s brains using MRI, and tested their math, reading and spelling skills using the Wide Range Achievement Test-3, which correlates closely with academic achievement in these fields.
They found differences in math skills and cortical brain structure between the higher-fit and lower-fit children.
Heyman said that given the rates of physical inactivity which were rising, there was an increased need to promote physical activity. She added that schools were the best institutions to implement such health behavior practices, due to the number of children they reached on a daily basis.
