Brain research|A researcher from Aalto University measured his health and fitness for months with brain imaging and wearable smart devices.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
One person’s daily life was monitored for five months with different devices.
The brain reacts for several days to sleep rhythm, physical activity, mood or breathing.
The variability of the heartbeat interval and the connectivity of the brain are related to each other, especially when resting.
Physical exercise improves the interaction of brain regions. It affects memory and thinking.
I dreamthe effects of exercise, heart rate and mood can be seen in the brain for up to two weeks.
Researchers from Aalto University and the University of Oulu followed one person’s daily life for five months using different devices: brain scans, wearable smart devices and smartphone data.
The study was part of a researcher at Aalto University Ana Trianan dissertation. He was also the object of his research.
“We know little about how the functional connections of complex brain networks react to changes in the environment, physiology and behavior over the course of days or months,” Triana describes.
Aalto University researcher Ana Triana monitored the activity of her brain using smart devices.
Research discovered that the brain does not respond to everyday life only in momentary and immediate impulses.
Instead, brain activity reflects sleep rhythm, physical activity, mood and breathing rate for a long time, over several days.
The exercise done in the previous week or a restless night’s sleep can still affect the brain and attention, thinking and memory the following week.
The brain regions connect to each other in varying ways, the study revealed.
Research revealed a strong link between heart rate variability and brain connectivity, particularly during rest.
Different stress management techniques may guide the connection of brain areas to each other even when the person is not actively concentrating.
Physical activity was found to have a positive effect on the mutual interaction of different areas of the brain. This may affect memory, for example.
Researchers observed two different response patterns in brain activity.
It is a short-term wave lasting less than seven days. On the other hand, there is a long-term, up to fifteen-day long wave.
The short wave reflects rapid adaptation, such as how the brain quickly recovers from the effects of bad sleep.
A long-term wave refers to gradual and more lasting effects. It especially affects areas related to attention and memory.
Brain studies do not usually follow the subject for days or weeks.
Information obtained from brain imaging and smart devices was supplemented with mood questionnaires.
“The use of wearable technology was crucial in the research,” says Triana.
According to Triana, brain scans are of course useful. However, a half-hour snapshot of a person lying still tells little about the person’s condition.
When information obtained from the brain is combined with everyday life, for example mental health treatments can be individualized.
“We need to bring everyday life into the laboratory in order to get a complete picture of how habits shape the brain,” says the neuroscience researcher Nick Hayward.
Real-time monitoring of brain changes can help detect neurological disorders in patients at an early stage.
The results were published by the scientific journal PLOS Biology.
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