this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
287 points (98.6% liked)
Asklemmy
43961 readers
1537 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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?