.... in the elderly.
Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
41–50 of 201 posts
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#42I think the difference in outcomes is likely to be down to "continuous learning of new movement patterns and choreographies" vs "participants performed the same exercises repeatedly ... We avoided combined arm and leg movements in order to keep coordinative demands low". That said, I think dance is great.
That said, dance is a really fun way to package repetitive movements. And if younger people did more of it, the men on this site would spend less time bitching about how hard it is to meet women. *cough*
Yes, you will “meet” more women by dancing than by playing games on your computer. That doesn’t necessarily mean you will make any meaningful connections.
Simply going places and interacting with people will also help you meet women. In fact, I think you’d sooner find a date by becoming a grocery store employee than a dancer, because you’re more likely to be having conversations with the people you meet.
Dancing, especially where you are learning, is not really socializing.
The structure of our modern society really does make it more difficult to meet new people. Women complain too, not just men.
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#43I do MRI work, and my gut is that none of the claims about dance vs. exercise would replicate. The behavioral data suggests that activity of some type will improve cognitive function (main effects of time). Such beneficial effects of activity on the brain have been shown before, and this is generally accepted. However, the authors' behavioral data doesn't show any difference between the dance vs. exercise groups. Thi…
I agree that the sample size might be a bit small so it could be noise, but the study did went 6-month not 6-weeks.
And there are findings like these https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the martial art: head injuries would complicate that analysis; tai chi isn't terribly aerobic, etc.
Yes, added styles there. Kata's can be quite dance-y depending on the style. Also, to be contrary old dude into martial arts all his life, I don't really consider many head bashing 'styles' now to be 'arts'. Martial, sure.
> Also, to be contrary old dude into martial arts all his life, I don't really consider many head bashing 'styles' now to be 'arts'.
Which ones would you consider to be "arts", and worth getting into?
I was recently thinking that I would like to get back into martial arts, but having done taekwondo in the past, I'm absolutely not interested in going back to any form of bashing impact..
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#45I don't have any science behind this, but it makes sense that training more complex motions would trigger greater brain improvements. Dance vs basketball or some other high coordination/skill activity might have less disparity than say dance vs. exercise bike.
Speaking as someone who tried to take a tap class as an adult, only to discover it was for people who were already experienced dancers: yes, dance training is vastly more complex than exercise. Update: what absolutely killed me is that we would run through a complex step two or three times, and we were expected to be able to practice at home. I didn't understand what we were doing while we were doing it, there was no…
I think gp’s point was that “exercise” encompasses a range from stationary bike to olympic lifts. Dancing is on the same end of that range as olympic lifting or a sport like basketball insofar as they all require intentional practice.
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#46I don't have any science behind this, but it makes sense that training more complex motions would trigger greater brain improvements. Dance vs basketball or some other high coordination/skill activity might have less disparity than say dance vs. exercise bike.
In fact dance based exercise like Zumba, or boxing even, is very helpful with folks suffering Parkinson’s because it require multiple tasks be processed at once - rhythm, hand, foot, observation of the lead. This induces plasticity which is crucial in staving Parkinson’s decline. So I find it strange to assert exercise alone is the beneficial component as it’s clear in pathological situations where increasing plasticity yields slower declines dance and complex exercise that requires many integrated tasks is superior to simple exercise.
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#47I do MRI work, and my gut is that none of the claims about dance vs. exercise would replicate. The behavioral data suggests that activity of some type will improve cognitive function (main effects of time). Such beneficial effects of activity on the brain have been shown before, and this is generally accepted. However, the authors' behavioral data doesn't show any difference between the dance vs. exercise groups. Thi…
I agree that the sample size might be a bit small so it could be noise, but the study did went 6-month not 6-weeks. And there are findings like these https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
Or it could be a problem of seeking statistical detection of any difference whatsoever versus detecting a practically meaningful difference... a type III error (answering the wrong question).
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#48A book I read 'spark' by John J Ratey, discussed this in a few chapters. Cardio/Running at 70% maximum heart rate lead to brain plasticity and even allowing new synapses to make connections and grow. However, he did argue an exercise that also required concentration e.g dancing, basketball, skateboarding would have better results.
It's absolutely crazy, that we misunderstand how our brains are intended to work in the old world. Our brains are for movement, the ability to think, plan and utilize tools appears to have been a happy accident that allowed our ancestor an advantage in survival.
brains be braining.
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#49"Regarding cognition, both groups improved in attention and spatial memory, but no significant group differences emerged." So, the dance group showed increase volume of brain matter. Is there a benefit to having the extra brain volume, even if it doesn't lead to improved cognition? Is it possible that increased volume just helped them become better dancers?
Cognition and memory are easily measurable brain functions but are not the exclusive function of the brain. As a conserving machine a healthy brain building volume is indicative of improvement in some function otherwise it wouldn’t bother building the volume.
Re: Dance training superior to physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity (2018)
#50"Regarding cognition, both groups improved in attention and spatial memory, but no significant group differences emerged." So, the dance group showed increase volume of brain matter. Is there a benefit to having the extra brain volume, even if it doesn't lead to improved cognition? Is it possible that increased volume just helped them become better dancers?
I got into dance a few years ago, and N=1 sure, but the big changes I observed as a result were improvements in proprioception, balance, sense of tempo, and I also gained the ability to deconstruct music in my head, and listen to different parts of it (e.g. only pay attention to the guitar or the drums or the vocals).
Like does this make me better at programming? Probably not. But the skills you gain do have other usages outside of dance, and honestly also kind of enrich life in general.