CJSP - FrontWrites

 It is well established that exercise is critical for a healthy human body, but it has also provided unique benefits to the vascular and cellular systems that are necessary for a healthy brain. While exercise benefits have been measured in humans of all ages, preclinical models have provided us the systematic opportunity to measure the mechanisms by which exercise protects and supports the brain. In the past twenty-five years, rodent models have established that greater levels of physical activity (eg., voluntary access to a running wheel; or, consistent access to a treadmill with scheduled sessions) elevate neurotrophic factors in the hippocampal and cortical sites, which stimulating and maintains neurotransmission to all areas of the brain. Greater levels of physical occupation facilitate proliferation, maturation, and survival of the dentate gyrus cells, which is necessary for adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Rodent studies are invaluable in this respect, because they demonstrate...

  Child development and early learning are labeled in different terms and organized in different ways in the different fields and disciplines that research, practice, and make policy about children from birth to age 8. In order to organize the discussion in this report, the committee chose to use this approach and these overarching terms. It is not the committee's intention to suggest that this is a best set of terms or a best categorization organization. In fact, it is also imperative to emphasize that the domains shown in also do not exist easily separated or categorized and one could build a case for multiple different categorizations.  For instance, not only do different disciplines classify or categorize different general cognitive processes under the categorical term "executive function", but also general cognitive processes relate to learning competencies like persistence and engagement. In the same way, self-regulation also has cognitive and emotional aspects to s...