A new study shows that the power to keep your brain healthy could literally be in your own hands.
Kelly Lambert, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Richmond in Virginia, says her experiments on rats revealed that those who use their paws to dig, claw or otherwise work for food showed greater brain activity and less stress hormone levels in their bodies.
She also points to other studies with human beings: Activities like knitting, painting and gardening — and even writing instead of texting — have had similar effects, even reducing levels of depression.
Lambert tells The New York Times, “With depression, people experience something called learned helplessness, where they feel like it doesn’t matter what they do, nothing ever works.”
Instead, working with your hands toward a final goal can counteract this. “When you put in effort and can see the product of that, like a scarf you knitted, I think that builds up a sense of accomplishment and control over your world,” she explains.
She adds, “When you look at the brain’s real estate — how it’s divided up, and where its resources are invested — a huge portion of it is devoted to movement, and especially to voluntary movement of the hands.”
And no, swiping Instagram Reels don’t count, even though you’re using your hands to do it.
Methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.