Dance to boost your brain

RECENTLY I did a podcast on the health benefits of dancing, part of a series I present called Just One Thing.

As I discovered when interviewing dancer-turned-neuroscientist Dr Julia Christensen from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, dancing not only boosts your muscles and balance, it can even increase the size of your brain.

But is it just because dancing is a great form of exercise?

In a recent study from Japan, brain scans on people before and after listening to the sort of music that makes you want to strut your stuff showed it has a beneficial impact on our brains, particularly on ‘executive function’ — i.e. skills such as concentration and planning. While the researchers didn’t suggest why, one theory is that this is because music has a complex neurological and multisensory effect on us. So the next time your boss catches you dancing by the water fountain, you can always say ‘I’m working on my personal development’ — and quote me.