Resilience & the Brain

Exercise is known to produce a myriad of positive effects on the brain, including increased glia, neurons, blood vessels, white matter and dendritic complexity. Such effects are associated with enhanced cognition and stress resilience in humans and animal models. 

Fellow athletes, we have all the more reason to keep training…We are living in stressful times! Besides the panoply of diseases physical exercise can counter, research has repeatedly demonstrated cognitive enhancement, improvements in mood and the propitious capability of exercise to mollify the stress response. The controlled physical stressor of exercise confers systemically favourable adaptations including that on the brain. These include increased blood vessels, neurons, glia, white matter and dendritic complexity, all of which are associated with the ability to buffer stress. Although trophic factors are frequently cited, there are likely several mechanisms at play that elucidate the fascinating capacity of our brains to adapt to challenges imposed.

Certainly reductionistic, but helpful for a general understanding of a highly intricate and complex systems, mental processes can be thought of as either controlled or reflexive. Higher order processes occur in neocortical regions such as the prefrontal cortex, whereas reflexive processes involve mainly several subcortical structures such as the amygdala. Awareness of these systems can be useful in devising stress-coping strategies.

Our ability to handle stress and develop resiliency is critical to navigating life especially in these unpredictable times. Tune in to our YouTube channel to hear Hayley Wickenheiser’s thoughts on resiliency.