Ways to Exercise the Temporal Lobe

Your brain's temporal lobe organizes your sensory input, according to the Centre for Neuro Skills. Damage can result in language dysfunction, sensory input disorganization, loss of memory and damage to visual/spatial fields. Ways to exercise temporal lobe vary from increasing your heart rate to stimulating mental processes. Exercises can be done in the comfort of your home. Depending upon your individual situation, check with your doctor prior to starting any new exercise regime.

Engage in Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Exercising your cardiovascular system can help temporal lobe function, according to PubMed of the National Institutes of Health 1. Cardiorespiratory exercises-exercises that increase your heart rate for an extended period of time- may also enhance activity in the medial temporal lobe area 1. Known as aerobic exercise, these exercises can increase attention efficiency, improve executive-control processes and improve cognitive function levels. Exercise may help control age-related brain changes in older adults and potentially hinder the development of Alzheimer's Disease. Individuals engaged in regular aerobic exercise decrease their risks of developing dementia, as exercise counteracts atrophy of medial temporal lobe areas. Cardiorespiratory exercises include:

• dancing
  
• walking
  
• rowing
  
• jogging
  
• skiing
  
• swimming
  
• aerobic exercise

Increasing everyday activity intensity can help as well. Activities such as leaf raking, snow shoveling, house painting and gardening supply beneficial exercise. Achieve the best cardiovascular/respiratory effects by exercising 30 minutes five or more days weekly. In initial stages of temporal lobe injury, aerobic exercise may need to be done in a rehabilitative setting, according to the Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery Center.

Play Video Games

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Temporal lobe injury can affect the attention span and visual area, according to the Centre for Neuro Skills. Cognitive rehabilitation exercises are proven to improve attention span capabilities. This can be accomplished through playing fast-paced video games, which increase contrast sensitivity in gamers. Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, notes that fast-paced games may be able to retrain the visual cortex to gain a better understanding of information it receives. Studies performed by Bavelier demonstrate improvement in visual perception and attention capabilities that last for months after game play has ceased. Games that feature fast-moving objects while being aware of the surrounding area, such as first-person shooter games, rank highest for improving visual attention, according to Disabled World 2.

Play Word Games

Damage to the temporal area may affect language comprehension, according to the Centre for Neuro Skills, and can be stimulated through participating in cognitive rehabilitation exercises that focus on improving language skills. Word games fall into this category, as do board games and crossword puzzles. Once you accomplish one level of difficulty, advance to the next. The key to improving brain function is through incorporating lasting, positive changes, according to Disabled World.