this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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So it’s right there in the results you quoted:
Apparently it simultaneously shrinks your right hippocampus while growing your left, for an average change of zero while the left grows?
That’s the only way that sentence makes sense.
I read that as “the hippocampus shrinks at a rate of [x] [y]s per [z]. Exercise slows that shrinking in the left hippocampus.”
Okay so it’s not making anything grow. Yeah that’s probably it.
Though that is still an effect on hippocampal volume.
Maybe they meant to say something like:
“Overall exercise doesn’t affect hippocampal volume, except in cases the hippocampus is actively shrinking in which case it can slow down the left side” (and reading between the lines possibly on the right side with a p value a little higher than significant?)
Agreed.
I wonder if it would “regenerate” an atrophied or shrunken hippocampus. Like the way rest and nutrition won’t make your skin larger but it will heal missing patches of skin.
I know I’ve seen claims from reputable sources that exercise raised BDNF levels, and that BDNF leads to hippocampal neurogenesis. I can find the sources again I’m sure if you’d like; let me know.
But how could hippocampal neurogenesis be happening without volume change? Could it be replacing dead cells (and preventing shrinkage)? Packing neurons in more densely?