Henning Budde
Medical School Hamburg, Germany
Biography
There is a need to discuss the impact of Physical Education on cognitive performance (and give a possible explaination), because these programs are required to contribute to the primary mission of schools, i.e., the promotion of academic performance. This talk is devoted to understand how physical activity is related to neuroendocrinological alterations in adolescents and how these changes influence cognition and motor control or coordinative skills. The results of the studies presented here are good to develop methods for improving the effectiveness of physical activity interventions by tailoring them to account for individual benefits in academic performance in schools. The results will lead to the conclusion that acute physical activity enhances cognitive performance, and, at the same time, affects the release of steroid hormones. Consequently, the shift in hormone concentration is jointly responsible for cognitive changes. Often, reports in support of the association of physical activity and cognitive performance as well as steroid hormones are backed by data from adults. For this reason, we collected data from children and adolescents that reasonably complement the triangular effect of acute exercise – cognitive performance – concentration of steroid hormones. We will provide evidence to promote this relation as well as examples how to apply this results in a school setting. The talk will end with the results of a longitudinal study we recently conducted which deals with the effect of additional exercise training on cognitive functioning, emotional parameters and hormonal functions.