“I predict there should be mental-health benefits. Less attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or it will be less severe. Less conduct disorder, the behaviours that get kids into trouble,” Dr. Diamond says.
Music might be another option for improving executive functions. The University of Toronto's Glenn Schellenberg wants to know why kids who take piano lessons or learn to play another instrument improve their scores on IQ tests after a year. These scores are usually stable – people tend not to improve over time.
Dr. Schellenberg and his colleague, Sylvain Moreno at York University in Toronto, are investigating their hunch that the improvement stems from music's ability to improve executive functions. They are testing the executive functions of musicians seven to nine years old who have had three years of training and comparing them to students who have not studied music.
Preliminary results suggest that their hypothesis is correct, Dr. Moreno says. The young musicians performed better on a test called the Tower of London, in which they have to think ahead to solve a problem in as few moves as possible.
They also had faster reaction times on a test in which two squares appear on the computer screen, one red, one blue. The children are told to press a key on the right side when they see the red square and a key on the left when they see the blue one.
This is easy when the square is in the middle of the screen. But when the red square appears on the left, they have to press a key on the right. “The instinct is to press on the left because the stimulus is on the left,” Dr. Moreno says.
Preliminary data show that the children who took music lessons had faster reaction times.
It is easy to see how studying piano or another instrument probably strengthens executive-function skills such as staying focused and ignoring distractions, but Dr. Moreno suspects that music also activates the brain and strengthens it indirectly.
“We are talking about transferring skills, not direct training. Music trains different areas of the brain that are also involved in memory and language,” he says. “You stimulate one neuron, and this neuron is involved in music but also in other areas. That is my main hypothesis.”
Dr. Diamond argues that the best activities for improving executive functions involve cognitive, physical, emotional and social elements. To engage in social activities you have to exercise executive functions, she says. “It provides training and practice.”
She suggests that taking part in a youth orchestra would be even better than individual music lessons because it involves a social component. Dance lessons could be ideal, she says. She is planning two studies in the Vancouver area to look at whether dance can improve executive functions and academic attainment.
Like music, dance requires sustained concentration. “You have to hold complex sequences in mind. You have to flexibly adjust to what is happening.” Hockey is another good bet, she says, because players have to use skills they learned as situations change on the ice.
But back at City Park Collegiate, a more basic kind of workout seems to be helping many of the students. Many have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, behavioural problems or other difficulties. Many are from low-income families and have faced tough times in their young lives
Ms. Cameron has been amazed by the students' improved performance on math and writing tests, but also by changes in their behaviour.
Some of the students were able to stop taking medication for ADHD. They were finishing assignments and coming to school regularly.
Today, Movement Matters is in its third year and most classes at the school take part. Companies have donated equipment, as has cyclist Greg LeMond, who offered Ms. Cameron six top-of-the-line spinning bikes. A number of schools across the country are interested in setting up something similar.
Fifteen-year-old Benji, whose guardian doesn't want his last name published, goes twice a day to the room with the exercise equipment. He alternates between the bike and treadmill, and usually gets his heart rate up to 140 beats a minute.
“When I first started, I was real tired,” he says. “When I got used to it, it woke me up more. I kind of got better at doing math and reading.”
