The human brain is the organ that mediates our thinking, feeling and behaving. Therefore one of the primary principles in the work of The ChildTrauma Academy is to use an understanding the neurosciences to inform our work with children, youth and adults impacted by a range of brain-mediated problems following maltreatment and trauma. This Translational Neuroscience focus has led to the development of our Neurosequential Model for use in clinical (NMT), educational (NME) and caregiving (NMC) settings.

   One of the most fascinating and compelling bodies of "evidence" in neuroscience is the work examining the effects of exercise and physical activity on brain functioning. Both in animals and in humans there is a well-documented positive impact of physical activity on memory and learning functions (see this article for example). The mechanisms underlying this appear to involve several areas of the brain - and multiple molecular processes that are activated by physical activity (including neurogenesis, differentiation of precursor neurons and epigenetic changes in existing neurons in key areas of the brain, for example).

   Multiple studies have shown that aerobic exercise leads to neurogenesis (new neurons) in the hippocampus and other areas of the brain involved in learning and memory. But just having physical activity and making new neurons is not the full story; it appears that pairing enriched environments (with opportunities for exposure to novelty) with the physical activity leads to the most enduring and meaningful changes in the brain. Therefore, exercise paired with new social and cognitive experiences would plausibly lead to better "learning" outcomes.

    This is very relevant for our current public school challenges. The body of evidence in neuroscience would tell us that the integration of physical activity and exercise into the daily matrix of the school day would have more positive effects than getting rid of recess and expecting children to get their exercise on their own or in some structured activity after school. While those other options are likely to have other positive benefits, the studies would suggest that a more integrated, frequent and repetitive set of exercise activities throughout the day would be more beneficial. Ironically this is just the opposite of what we are doing in most public school settings - and in countries that have acted on this information such as Finland, their public school outcomes have improved and surpassed those in the U.S.

   The Neurosequential Model in Education (NME) Work Group is looking at a host of related neuroscience-informed elements to integrate into the educational setting to create a more developmentally informed and effective learning environment. We will share some of the progress of that group in future CTA Newsletters.

Kempermann G, Fabel K, Ehninger D, Babu H, Leal-Galicia P, Garthe A and Wolf SA (2010) Why and how physi­cal activity promotes experience-induced brain plasticity. Front. Neurosci. 4:189. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2010.00189