A Japanese research team recently published an article in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, saying that short periods of exercise in the elderly can activate specific parts of the right brain to compensate for the judgmental functions undertaken by the left brain. This is the first time in the world that exercise has been shown to improve the functional compensation of the declining brain. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba and the Autonomous Medical University in Japan tested the judgment ability of 20 students with an average age of 21.5 years and 16 healthy elderly people with an average age of 69.3 years. The researchers asked the test subjects to judge whether the color given and the text indicating the color were the same, and counted their correct responses and reaction times. The test subjects were then asked to ride a bicycle for 10 minutes, and after a 15-minute break, they were given the same test again and their brain activity was observed with an instrument. Comparing the results of the two tests, the researchers found that the students’ judgment speed increased by an average of 50 percent after exercise, while the left part of their brain was active; the older group’s judgment speed increased by an average of 16 percent, while the right frontal pole of the right brain was more active than when they were tested before exercise. Since judgment is governed by the left hemisphere of the brain, the research team believes that although some brain functions of the elderly decline with age, after a short period of exercise, other parts of the brain will be active and compensate to some extent for the declining left brain functions. It is known that the habit of exercise helps to improve the cognitive function of the brain, and this study confirms that a short period of exercise can also benefit brain function.