A bad mood or poor night’s sleep could influence your brain for up to two weeks, according to a study.
Researchers discovered our brains don’t respond to daily life in immediate, isolated bursts, but instead evolve in response to our lifestyle over time.
This suggests a workout or restless night’s sleep from last week can still affect your attention, cognition and memory well into the following week, they said.
As part of a unusual, long-term study, scientists tracked one person’s brain and behaviour for five months using scans and data from wearable devices and smartphones.
They found that things such as focus were impacted by the likes of poor sleep, but that this lasted for less than a week.
Researchers have discovered that our brains do not respond to daily life in immediate, isolated bursts but instead evolve in response to our lifestyle over time
Sleep deprivation can lead to obesity, memory loss, diabetes, heart disease, heightened and unstable emotions, impaired ability to learn and a reduced immune response, leaving you vulnerable to disease
However, areas tied to attention and memory could be affected for up to 15 days by past behaviour.
Analysis revealed exercise had a lasting, positive impact on the way brain regions interacted, meaning it could boost memory and cognition for up to two weeks.
Even very subtle shifts in mood and heart rate left lasting imprints for up to 15 days, the team said.
The study, published in the journal Plos Biology, was carried out by researchers from Aalto University and the University of Oulu, both in Finland.
‘Every day, we wake up as a slightly different person, as our mental states are influenced by many external factors,’ they wrote.
‘The quality of sleep, the level of physical activity, and the nature of our social interactions all affect the state of our brains at different timescales.
‘These timescales range from milliseconds, to seconds, minutes and days.
‘Our findings suggest that behavioural, physiological and lifestyle factors correlate with brain connectivity across different timescales, in both the short term – less than seven days – and longer term, up to two weeks.
‘Our results demonstrate that we should not study brain connectivity in isolation, but rather acknowledge its interdependence with the dynamics of the environment, changes in lifestyle, and short-term fluctuations such as transient illnesses or restless sleep.
‘These results reflect a prolonged and sustained relationship between external factors and neural processes.’
The team said their research is unusual in that few brain studies involve detailed monitoring over days and weeks.
Researcher leader Ana Triana, who was also the subject of the study, said: ‘We wanted to go beyond isolated events.
‘Our behaviour and mental states are constantly shaped by our environment and experiences. Yet, we know little about the response of brain functional connectivity to environmental, physiological, and behavioural changes on different timescales, from days to months.
‘We must bring data from daily life into the lab to see the full picture of how our habits shape the brain.
‘Linking brain activity with physiological and environmental data could revolutionize personalized healthcare, opening doors for earlier interventions and better outcomes.’
