Dance: The secret of longevity? – Health and Wellness

Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have discovered that an activity that can last only three minutes and which should preferably be done in the morning can make us happier as well as more intelligent.

The Japanese are constantly conducting scientific research to understand and determine what can improve our quality of life and well-being. Although they no longer stop adopting the very good nutritional practices that allow them to break longevity records, they regularly ask themselves what could contribute to their happiness on a daily basis.

It’s about dancing. It was already known that exercise could stimulate and strengthen the brain, well, now they have determined that even three minutes of dancing a day can help improve brain performance.

Is dancing the secret of happiness?
Scientists came to this conclusion by studying the benefits of dancing for people who like to move their bodies daily while listening to music. Apparently, rhythmic physical exercises improve executive functions in the prefrontal cortex, that is, the area of ​​the brain associated with decision making, but they also allow better control of emotions, better working memory and increased attention.

According to this study, the ideal way to benefit from dancing and brain performance would be to groovy rhythms, i.e. catchy music that essentially encourages you to wave your body.

The experts explain in their report, “Listening to upbeat music, especially music with a fast tempo, produces a greater feeling of excitement, causing people to instinctively move their bodies to the beat.” To test this theory, they invited 48 participants between the ages of 18 and 26 to take part in three three-minute sessions of aerobics at a “very light” intensity.

At the end of these sessions, participants who reported that their bodies “resonated with the rhythm” while dancing also saw improvements in their brain activity in the prefrontal cortex.

“These results, like previous results, support the hypothesis that groove rhythms allow us to enhance the cognitive benefits of exercise and suggest that subjective audiomotor training is a major mechanism of this stimulatory effect,” the authors of the study. concluded.