Exercise has been shown to improve brain health and reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia over the long term. However, engaging in everyday physical activity has immediate benefits for brain health, according to a new study by Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

The team found that middle-aged people who participated in everyday movement showed improvement in cognitive processing speed equivalent to being four years younger, regardless of whether the activity was lower intensity, like walking the dog or doing household chores, or higher intensity, like jogging.

“You don’t have to go to the gym to experience all the potential benefits of physical activity,” said Jonathan Hakun, assistant professor of neurology and psychology at Penn State and the Penn State College of Medicine. “All movement is important. Everyday movement is a source of accumulated physical activity that could be credited toward a healthy lifestyle and may directly impact cognitive health.”

Previous research that has examined the relationship between physical activity and cognitive health typically looked at the long-term relationship, for example, over decades for a retrospective study or months to a year for intervention studies. Hakun said he was interested in connecting the dots sooner to understand the potential short-term impact of physical activity on cognitive health.

The research team leveraged smartphone technology to interact with participants multiple times during their daily lives using ecological momentary assessment. Over nine days, participants checked in six times a day, approximately every 3.5 hours.

During each check-in, participants reported if they had been physically active since their last check-in. If they were active, they were asked to rate the intensity of their activity — light, moderate or vigorous. For example, walking and cleaning were considered light intensity while running, fast biking and effortful hiking were considered vigorous. Participants were then prompted to play two “brain games,” one designed to assess cognitive processing speed and the other designed to evaluate working memory, which Hakun said can be a proxy for executive function.

The team found that when participants reported being physically active sometime in the previous 3.5 hours, they showed improvements in processing speed equivalent to being four years younger. While there were no improvements in working memory, the response time during the working memory task mirrored the improvements observed for processing speed.

“We get slower as we age, both physically and cognitively. The idea here is that we can momentarily counteract that through movement. It’s compelling,” Hakun said. “There’s the potential for a brief walk or a little extra movement to give you a boost.”

Additionally, people who reported being active more often experienced more incredible short-term benefits than those who reported less physical activity overall. Hakun said this suggests that regular physical activity may increase cognitive health benefits. However, he explained that more research is needed to understand how much physical activity and the frequency and timing of being active influence cognitive health.