Ever thought that those extra hours of sleep from last week still affect your thinking skills? Or that yesterday’s morning yoga can boost your creativity next week? New research suggests that our daily activities and mood have a longer lasting effect on our brain than previously thought.
The study, which was published in the journal PLOS Biologysheds new light on the complex relationship between our daily habits and the functioning of our brain. By closely monitoring one person for five months, researchers found that the effects of sleep, exercise, heart rate and mood remain visible in our brains for up to two weeks. Research leader Ana Triana explains: “We wanted to look beyond isolated events. Our behavior and mental state are constantly shaped by our environment and experiences. Yet we know little about how the brain’s functional connectivity responds to changes in our environment, physiology and behavior on different timescales, from days to months.”
Short and longer term impact
The research revealed two different response patterns in the brain: a short pattern that lasts less than seven days, and a longer wave that can last up to fifteen days. The short wave mainly concerns matters that can change quickly, for example a poor night’s sleep that means you cannot concentrate all day. The long wave, on the other hand, has a more cumulative impact on things like attention span and memory. “We think of the short wave as more transient associations, such as a few nights of insufficient sleep that directly affect brain connectivity during sustained attention. Although this connectivity is affected, we think the brain can ‘bounce back’ to baseline. In our opinion, the long wave points to a longer-term interplay between factors and brain connectivity,” Triana tells Scientias.nl.
Another striking finding was the possible connection between heart rate variability and the networks in our brains, especially when we relax. In other words, the study suggests that stress management is not only good for your heart, but also your brain.
Results remain limited
The study was unique in its design, with Triana serving as both principal investigator and subject. In addition to brain scans, the research team used wearable technology and smartphones to get a complete picture of Triana’s daily activities and physiological responses. This design had both advantages and disadvantages, the researcher says. “The most obvious limitation is that these results are individual, making it difficult to generalize them to a larger population. Although the subject is human, individual lifestyles vary greatly. The specific relationship between daily habits and brain function that we observed in one person may not apply to others. Still, we expect variation in brain connectivity in other individuals and think that people’s environment is also related to their connectivity over time.”
Difficult to replicate on a larger scale
Triana adds that she doesn’t think such experiments can be done on a larger scale because they are expensive and can be hard on participants. “Although such experiments are difficult to conduct on a larger scale due to the cost and burden on participants, they allow us to investigate and better understand variability from within. As we gain more insight into how people are affected differently by external factors, we can, for example, consider including behavioral data from the past week in large-scale analyses. This can improve the translation of large-scale research into a more personal context.”
Personalized healthcare
The findings, if they can be replicated, have potentially far-reaching implications for how we view our daily habits. A restless night or a tough workout could have more impact than we think. Triana especially emphasizes the importance of these insights for the future of personalized healthcare: “Linking brain activity to physiological and environmental data can revolutionize personalized healthcare. It opens the door to earlier interventions and better results,” the researcher concludes.