BITESIZE | How Walking Improves Our Brain and Mental Health | Shane O’Mara #160
Neuroscientist Shane O'Mara, Professor at Trinity College Dublin, discusses how walking is an underrated superpower. It significantly boosts cognition, creativity, mood, and can reverse functional brain aging, even improving memory and attention in older adults.
Deep Dive Analysis
5 Topic Outline
Walking's Impact on Mood and Happiness
Brain Plasticity and Hippocampal Volume
Reversing Functional Brain Aging in Older Adults
Walking Enhances Creativity and Idea Generation
Integrating Walking into Daily Life
3 Key Concepts
Brain Plasticity
The brain functions like a muscle, dynamically changing and improving in response to activity, and tending to atrophy if left unused.
Hippocampal Formation
A specific area of the brain that can increase in volume as a result of aerobic exercise like walking, leading to improvements in functions it supports, such as memory.
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)
A molecule expressed in the brain that can be measured in the blood; its levels increase with exercise, correlating with improved memory.
5 Questions Answered
People consistently underestimate the positive impact of a walk, with self-rated mood often improving significantly after just 20 minutes, even for those who initially dread it.
Yes, aerobic exercise like walking can materially increase the volume of the hippocampal formation, a brain area crucial for memory, and improve its functions.
No, studies show that even people in their 70s can reverse functional brain aging, improve memory, and increase hippocampal volume by starting a walking regimen.
Walking for a short period (5-10 minutes) before an intellectual task can significantly boost creativity, leading to twice as many ideas generated compared to being seated.
Society has often engineered environments that make driving the default, rather than making it easy and invisible to integrate walking into daily routines.
6 Actionable Insights
1. Reverse Brain Aging with Walking
Walk three times a week for about a mile and a half, even in your 70s, to improve memory and attention, increase hippocampal volume, and functionally reverse brain aging, as it’s never too late to start.
2. Boost Brain Volume & Memory
Engage in lots of aerobic exercise, particularly walking, to increase the volume of the hippocampal formation and improve memory, as the brain is plastic and benefits from being worked like a muscle.
3. Boost Creativity Before Tasks
Walk for 5-10 minutes prior to engaging in intellectual tasks or creative problem-solving, as this can double the number of ideas generated and improve performance, even for older individuals.
4. Improve Mood with a Walk
Go for a walk for about 20 minutes, even if you dread it, because people consistently underestimate how much better it will make them feel, often raising their mood significantly.
5. Engineer Walking into Daily Life
Make walking the default option for movement throughout your day, rather than relying on cars, to easily integrate its benefits into your life without conscious effort.
6. Walk for Overall Well-being
Engage in walking regularly to boost cognition, creativity, and mood, as it is an underrated activity with benefits beyond physical health.
4 Key Quotes
We persistently underestimate how good a walk will make us feel.
Shane O'Mara
The brain functions like a muscle. It's plastic. If you work it, it changes dynamically in response to what you do to it. If you leave it, it tends to atrophy.
Shane O'Mara
You only get old when you stop walking, you don't stop walking because you're old.
Shane O'Mara
If you get elderly people or people who are older in their 70s to walk prior to a creative idea generation, they will generate twice as many ideas as sedentary 20-year-olds who haven't walked.
Shane O'Mara
2 Protocols
Reversing Functional Brain Aging in Older Adults
Shane O'Mara- Walk three times a week.
- Walk for about a mile and a half per session.
- Engage in this activity with a physiotherapist (as done in the study).
- Continue this regimen for a year or more.
Boosting Creativity Before a Task
Shane O'Mara- Engage in a short period of movement.
- Walk for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Do this prior to generating new creative ideas or performing an intellectual task.