It is possible that being in shape might translate to even greater mental benefits, such as increased intelligence, creativity, memory, or reasoning ability?  Scientists have long known that lab­oratory animals that run mazes and perform tricky acrobatics seem to grow smarter over time. But is the mental stimulation or the physical exercise the reason? For years, no one could answer that question. Now, however, the picture is begin­ning to clear.¹

It seems that mental stimulation and physical exercise share the credit for those smarter mice, says William Greenough, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, psychiatry, and cell and structural biology at the University of Illinois. “When we separated the two and gave some animals exercise without mental stimulation and oth­ers mental stimulation without exer­cise, we discovered both factors were contributing to the increase of the brain’s learning centers in different ways.”

Mental stimulation, he explains, results in more synapses, the little gaps between brain nerve cells that enable them to communicate with one another. Physical exercise, on the other hand, results in more capillar­ies in the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex—two areas of the brain cru­cial to intelligence. Together, says Greenough, physical exercise com­bined with a mentally stimulating life would seem to make for a potent affect on intelligence.¹

_{1 ‘J.E. Black etal., “Learning Causes Synaptogenesis Whereas Motor Activity causes Angiogenesis, in Cerebellar Cortex of Adult Rats Proc. Nat). Aced. Sc!. 87 (1990): 5568-5572. ‘W.W. Carnpbet, et al., “Increased Energy Requirements and changes in Body composition with Resistance Training in OlderAdults” Am. J. C/in. Nutr. 60.2(1994): 167-175. ‘A. Feinstein, Training the Body to Cure Itself (Pennsylvania; Rodale Press, 1992).}