It's listening to music we like and noticing how, almost without being able to help it, we start moving our heads from side to side. And if it's not our heads, it's a foot tapping the floor to the rhythm of the song. Well, if instead of staying there, we start dancing, both body and mind will benefit greatly.
The results of numerous scientific publications suggest that activities such as playing tennis, swimming, running, walking, cycling, or dancing, among others, can contribute to reducing the risk of cardiovascular disorders, help control our weight, and modulate the symptoms of stress and depression. Brain changes have also been detected in terms of increases in brain white and gray matter, which, in turn, could lead to improved overall cognitive functioning.
Specifically, people who engage in aerobic sports over a long period of time appear to improve their memory and certain executive functions, such as the ability to solve problems or inhibit irrelevant information more effectively. These behavioral changes have been associated with modifications in the temporal and frontal regions of our brain, which become visible six months after beginning sports practice.
Fortunately, there's a wide variety of aerobic exercises to choose from, the one that best suits our physical or even financial needs. One of them, as we've already seen, is one we do almost without realizing it as soon as a song we like comes on: dancing.
The less skilled limit themselves to moving a part of their body to the rhythm of the music, and the most daring can even perform graceful pirouettes and showy body twists. Some go further and sign up for flamenco, dance, ballroom, salsa, or breakdancing classes. The important thing is to dance however we like, however motivates us, to the rhythm of the music that moves us, whether alone, with a partner, or in a group.
Dancing, more than physical activity
Why is it important? Basically, because the benefits of dancing are multiple and almost immediate. For starters, we feel good and proud of ourselves when we're able to string two steps together without stumbling. It may not be a feat for our dance teacher, of course; how easy it is after years of practice! Right? But for beginners, it requires a lot of attention: you have to coordinate your movements, the rhythm, not step on your partner's toes, and, if possible, accompany it with a smile.
On the other hand, older adults who dance improve their postural control system, which is reflected in both balance and gait. This is important because, as we age, our balance control system changes, increasing reaction times and reducing the effectiveness of our motor strategies for postural control.
There is abundant evidence that physical exercise, including dancing, improves our muscular strength and endurance, our motor skills, and reduces the likelihood of falls.
Our brain changes by dancing
Dancing requires, among other skills, focusing our attentional system on the activity we are about to perform, maintaining instructions in our working memory, recalling previous movement sequences, and testing our motor coordination skills. In a recent study, we demonstrated that this combination of factors strengthens spatial perception and memory, as well as executive functioning, which includes flexible thinking and self-control.
On the other hand, some researchers have shown that dancing is more beneficial than repetitive physical exercise for inducing brain plasticity in older adults. Specifically, they compared dance, including new and increasingly complex choreographies, with repetitive physical exercise, stationary cycling, and other activities with the same cardiovascular demands as dancing. While all activities improve both physical and cognitive health, the results showed that dancing generates broader brain changes.
We must also keep in mind the social aspects. In most cases, dancing involves contact with one or more other people. Therefore, we activate all the processes of detecting and processing social stimuli, which are very cognitively demanding.
So much so that it is hypothesized that the human brain has evolved largely thanks to pressures from complex social environments.
And finally, there's music... That complex and structured set of sounds that activates both perceptual and cognitive processes, as well as our emotions. Science has shown that all leisure activities associated with music provide cognitive and emotional benefits.
In the context of dance, music activates empathy processes in the brain, alters states of consciousness, and awakens feelings rooted in our evolutionary and cultural history. So much so that it can be understood to predate language as a primary form of communication.
When dance is used as a form of stimulation for older adults, it immediately bears fruit. Cognitive, physical, emotional, and social benefits are observed. This seems no small feat for such a simple activity, where changes occur within a few months of starting to practice it.
So why wait? Shall we dance?
José Manuel Cimadevilla is a professor of Psychobiology at the Center for Health Research, University of Almería
Carmen Noguera Cuenca is a professor in the Department of Psychology/Basic Psychology, HUM-891 Research Group, Cognitive Neuroscience Research, University of Almería.
This article was originally published on The Conversation
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