Brain Change by Juggling

§ July 24th, 2008 § Filed under brain research, neuroscience, plasticity § No Comments

PLoS ONE reports that more evidence of brain plasticity has been found by researchers in Germany:

After three months of training, learning three-ball cascade juggling, the researchers observed a transient and highly selective increase in brain gray matter in the “occipito-temporal cortex” — the brain’s motion sensitive area (hMT/V5 bilaterally).

Studying 20 healthy adult volunteers researchers from Hamburg and Jana showed that learning to juggle can alter gray matter as early as after 7 days of training. Neither performance nor exercise alone could explain these changes.

Read the abstract…

Changes in Gray Matter Induced by Learning—Revisited

Joenna Driemeyer1, Janina Boyke1, Christian Gaser2, Christian BĂĽchel1, Arne May1*

1 Department of Systems Neuroscience, University of Hamburg (UKE), Hamburg, Germany2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Jena, Jena, Germany

Leave a Response