Literature Review Writing 2 1

The Science behind Exercise in the Human Brain
Human brain exercise has many unsolved mysteries, but in a nutshell, how does the brain
evolve through incompatible ways of exercise? These types of exercise can be physical activity,
mental health, and further specific activities to improve your brain to become more sharp and to
keep you well-minded. Neurobiology, also known as neuroscience, is also evolving every day
through new research responses to find how predominant this topic is, due to the fact that
neuroscience is the main source of everyone’s life and without the study of this there would be
no evidence to show how the brain itself is evolving. Physical activity plays an important role in
the expansion and evolution of the brain, since aerobic physical activity (APA) generates and
protects the new neurons which increase the volume of the brain structures and improves the
cognition in humans. 1 Physical activity positively affects mental health.2 This literature review
brings together sources, both academic and non-academic, which proves the intention of how
neurobiology relates with human brain exercise/expansion to bring a better understanding
because of how the brain is evolving through every direction we take.
In-depth research on human brain exercise happens in separate areas of study in sources
like peer-reviewed articles, compromising both a consensus in scholarly conversation and
accurate public perception. Peer-reviewed articles are for a restrictive audience of scholars and
1
Raichlen, D. and Polk, J., 2021. Off-Campus Access: Login. [online] Www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu.
Available at: <https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/stable/pdf/41727576.pdf?ab_segments=0%252
PSYC-5917%252Ftest&refreqid=excelsior%3A9c3061d495625dcc7051841484e367aa> [Accessed 15 July 2021].
2
Portugal, Eduardo Matta Mello, et al. “Neuroscience of Exercise: From Neurobiology Mechanisms to Mental
Health.” Neuropsychobiology, Karger Publishers, 15 June 2013, www.karger.com/article/fulltext/350946.
3
Team, T., 2021. How Food Can Affect Your Brain. [online] Genomind.com. Available at:
<https://www.genomind.com/blog/how-food-can-affect-your-brain> [Accessed 19 July 2021].
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are far from the public’s reach. The authors of “Linking brains and brawn: exercise and the
evolution of human neurobiology” from The Royal Society Publishing wrote the article to
apprise the changes in brain size due to the cognitive functions in the brain upon evolution.
These cognitive functions have evolved through time in beneficial ways, but looking at this
article from the author’s perspective there are different abilities that have evolved through
neurobiology that do not have to do with cognitive performance. The development of the human
brain size does not come with just the brain itself, it also comes with the relatedness of body
mass, author’s Raichlen and Polk declare, which is due to the complication of social awareness
and the mutual dependence among the elements of a cognitive ecosystem. The main picture is
how the linking of physical activity and the brain can correlate to each other. The linking would
come from the aerobic physical activity (APA) and the neurobiology of the human lineage.
Looking at the human brain, the brain is approximately three times larger than expected for our
body size which is due to the increases in several brain components, these increases are both in
the absolute brain size and the brain size relative to body mass which occurred during early
evolution. 1 This ties in with the ideas of brain expansion and the mechanisms of aerobic physical
activity (APA) because aerobic physical activity has the potential to alter the adult mammalian
brain, aerobic physical activity also is an unrecognized factor in mammalian neurobiological
evolution and can highlight that non-cognitive selection pressures can play an important role in
the evolution of the human brain.

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Dietary concerns play a huge role through brain exercise and expansion, this is because
your body reacts to what you are putting into it and how much energy is consumed. One source
that effectively addresses the issue of brain expansion is “Human Brain Expansion during
Evolution Is Independent of Fire Control and Cooking” from the author’s Alianda Cornelio and
Marcos Costa. These authors took their time to research and write about this human evolution
trait to portray ideas of how brain size is relative to body size, which is referred to as
encephalization. Increased encephalization is an official mark of human cognitive and cultural
evolution. This source gives a take on how your dietary lifestyle and energy intake will have a
role in the expansion and development of each one's human brain. The human brain requires
energy and energy can be attained by the form of foods we eat. If we pay close attention to what
we eat and put into our body, we are able to control how well our brains perform not just
physically, but intellectually and emotionally. Our brain functions best when we eat a nutritious
and balanced diet, the growing field of nutritional psychiatry is finding that there are many
connections between what we eat and the types of bacteria that live in our guts which affect how
we feel and even, how we behave. 3 These facts and the different types of information come from
the different archaeological, physiological, and metabolic evidence that has been found and
being looked at and discovered during this present day.
Exercise is needed everyday to keep not just your brain healthy but your entire body too,
these different physical activities can play a huge role in an individual’s life. The final source that
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addresses an issue that the other sources just briefly touched on is “Neuroscience of Exercise:
From Neurobiology Mechanisms to Mental Health”, this source shows how the human brain
needs the different mechanisms of exercise in the brain to maintain superb mental health. There
are studies of the efficacy of using exercise to treat and/or prevent mental disorders are essential,
while mental disorders are on the increase. One possible mechanism of exercise, ultimately the
positive effects, is the increased synthesis and release of neurotransmitters and neurotrophins. 4
Physical exercise promotes changes in the human brain due to increases in metabolism,
oxygenation, and blood flow throughout the body to the brain. Physical training/exercise can
lower the severity of several symptoms that are related to various mental disorders, therefore
mental physical exercise can modulate mental health in both constructive and destructive ways.
In spite of this, these sources on one’s own contain important information on the topics of
exercise throughout the human brain, also known as neuroscience or neurobiology, and how
neuroscience is evolving around the ways of human brain exercise/expansion. When looked at all
around, these sources provide explanations regarding the types of physical activity, dietary
recommendations for brain growth/expansion, and mental health. This literature review brought
out divergent ideas of the process of human exercise through the human brain, which is specified
as neuroscience or neurobiology.
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Bibliography
Raichlen, D. and Polk, J., 2021. Off-Campus Access: Login. [online]

Www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu. Available at:
<https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/stable/pdf/41727576.pdf?ab_segments=0%2
52 PSYC-5917%252Ftest&refreqid=excelsior%3A9c3061d495625dcc7051841484e367aa>
[Accessed 15 July 2021].
Portugal, Eduardo Matta Mello, et al. “Neuroscience of Exercise: From Neurobiology

Mechanisms to Mental Health.” Neuropsychobiology, Karger Publishers, 15 June 2013,
www.karger.com/article/fulltext/350946.
Portugal, Eduardo Matta Mello, et al. “Neuroscience of Exercise: From Neurobiology

Mechanisms to Mental Health.” Neuropsychobiology, Karger Publishers, 15 June 2013,
www.karger.com/article/fulltext/350946.
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The Science behind Exercise in the Human Brain

neurobiology relates with human brain exercise/expansion to bring a better understanding

because of how the brain is evolving through every direction we take.

like peer-reviewed articles, compromising both a consensus in scholarly conversation and

brain, aerobic physical activity also is an unrecognized factor in mammalian neurobiological

the evolution of the human brain.

encephalization. Increased encephalization is an official mark of human cognitive and cultural

being looked at and discovered during this present day.

Raichlen, D. and Polk, J., 2021. Off-Campus Access: Login. [online]

Portugal, Eduardo Matta Mello, et al. “Neuroscience of Exercise: From Neurobiology

Portugal, Eduardo Matta Mello, et al. “Neuroscience of Exercise: From Neurobiology

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