Most of you already understand the primary health benefit of owning of a dog: Walking long distances you wouldn't even consider attempting at your local health club in pursuit of the perfect open-air latrine for your bestest canine friend. Exercise and companionship aren't the only health perks you'll enjoy, particularly if you're a Baby Boomer or senior wanting to maintain an active mind.

Sixty-five previously sedentary patients (ages 59-80) were divided into two groups -- walking or stretching and toning -- to determine which activity better promoted the connectivity of important brain circuits over the course of a year, with the help of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Researchers were keen to monitor any changes in the brain's default mode network (DMN), the region of the brain that dominates activity when a patient is least engaged with the world around him/her. Deficits in this area are a common marker of aging, and can be a sign of disease in some extreme cases, according to previous studies.

Of the two groups, walkers experienced better connectivity in the DMN and the area that helps the brain perform better on more complex tasks (multitasking, planning, scheduling) and scored far better on cognitive tests than did the toning-stretching group.

Even better, the amount of walking time needed for patients to experience an improvement in brain function is very doable for many folks: Forty-minute sessions three days a week at one's own pace.

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Vol. 2, Article 32, August 2010 Free Full Text PDF

ScienceDaily August 27, 2010