Physical activity and the brain
Our team
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Heidi Johansen-Berg
Director of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging
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Catherine Wheatley
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
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Piergiorgio Salvan
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Brain Plasticity
FIT to Study
This study, which completed in 2020, was part of a research call funded by the Wellcome Trust and Education Endowment Foundation in order to develop, evaluate and communicate the impact of education interventions informed by neuroscience research.
The Fit to Study research team developed a physical activity intervention that was incorporated in school PE lessons, designed to optimise the benefit of PE for brain structure and function. The Fit to Study project examined the impact of this physical activity intervention on academic attainment, fitness, cognitive function and mental health in Year 8 pupils.
The independent evaluator (NatCen Social Research) examined the effect of the physical activity intervention on maths attainment. The results of their analysis can be found here.
More information about the Fit to Study project can be found here.
Investigators: Heidi Johansen-Berg, Piergiorgio Salvan, Thomas Wassenaar, Catherine Wheatley
Collaborators: Helen Dawes, Joan Duda
Current Funders: Wellcome Trust; Education Endowment Foundation
Independent Evaluator: NatCen Social Research
More information:
News article about Fit to Study on the Brookes University website
Information about the project on the Education Endowment Foundation website