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How Walking Improves Memory | Dr. Alan Castel & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Huberman Lab Clips10:01Added Aug 31, 2026

Dr. Alan Castel and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the impact of physical movement on brain longevity, emphasizing how regular walking can increase hippocampal ...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Walking & Brain Health

  2. 00:00If you go on a walk, some really good
  3. 00:02research shows that, you know, walking
  4. 00:04three or four times a week um can
  5. 00:06enhance hippocample function. The part
  6. 00:08of the brain that's very involved in
  7. 00:10declarative memory. Um and that part of
  8. 00:12the brain, you know, having turned 50
  9. 00:15recently tends to decline by about one
  10. 00:172% a year in terms of volume. So this is
  11. 00:20kind of physical shrinkage of the brain.
  12. 00:22But in the walking group, the group that
  13. 00:24was randomly assigned to walk three,
  14. 00:26four times a week for 40 minutes,
  15. 00:27compared to a stretching group who's
  16. 00:28still engaging in exercise but not
  17. 00:31cardiovascular exercise, the walking
  18. 00:33group, their, you know, hippocampus
  19. 00:35actually increased in volume by 1%. So
  20. 00:38you're changing the the brain, but
  21. 00:40you're also changing the behavior. Their
  22. 00:42memory was much better a year later. So
  23. 00:44I think, you know, if you saw a doctor
  24. 00:46and said, you know, I'm having some
  25. 00:47memory problems. What can I do? most
  26. 00:49people are looking for a pill or you
  27. 00:52know sometimes it's eat this or do that
  28. 00:54but I think physical exercise can be so
  29. 00:56important uh and it probably the
  30. 00:59mechanism we don't know exactly but it
  31. 01:00probably trickles down to things like
  32. 01:02improvements in sleep as well
  33. 01:04you know if you're getting exercise
  34. 01:05maybe earlier in the day you're going to
  35. 01:07have better mood you're going to sleep
  36. 01:09better we know a lot of memory formation
  37. 01:11happens when you're sleeping uh we know
  38. 01:13as we get older our sleep quality tends
  39. 01:16to decline even if our quantity tends to
  40. 01:19increase. So I think just knowing that
  41. 01:21there are some things we can do and I'm
  42. 01:23using physical exercise as the example
  43. 01:25and it doesn't have to be you know the
  44. 01:27extreme version um walking, dancing. Um
  45. 01:31a lot of people you know enjoy being
  46. 01:33outside. Uh that can be incredibly
  47. 01:36important to offset some of the things
  48. 01:37we do know can can lead to dementia.
  49. 01:40Was the walking vigorous? you know, in
  50. 01:42this group, I think it's really 30 to 40
  51. 01:45minutes. And there's nothing special.
  52. 01:47It's certainly about walking, but it's
  53. 01:48something where you can randomly assign
  54. 01:50people to either walk or engage in
  55. 01:52stretching.
  56. 01:52So, if you're biking, if you're
  57. 01:54swimming, if you're dancing, any of
  58. 01:55these things can be beneficial, but here
  59. 01:57it's, you know, you can randomly assign
  60. 01:59people to walk and and it should be at a
  61. 02:00rate where you're, you know, there's
  62. 02:02research showing that the people who
  63. 02:03walk slightly faster actually live
  64. 02:05longer. Um, so, you know, you're not
  65. 02:08sure exactly causality there.
  66. 02:10Could certainly be that. and and a lot
  67. 02:12of this research, it's tough to do aging
  68. 02:13research because it's hard to randomly
  69. 02:15assign people to to certain conditions,

  70. Balance & Fall Prevention

  71. 02:17but I think as a psychologist, knowing
  72. 02:19that you have a little bit of control
  73. 02:21over the process is important. And I
  74. 02:23think, you know, most people when they
  75. 02:25talk about aging, they're so worried
  76. 02:26about dementia and, you know,
  77. 02:28Alzheimer's disease as a specific form,
  78. 02:30but balance is even more important, I
  79. 02:33think. And most people aren't even aware
  80. 02:35of their balance. Mhm.
  81. 02:36So, one in four people over the age of
  82. 02:3965 will experience a fall and that fall
  83. 02:42can be very detrimental. You can break
  84. 02:44your hip, your collar bone often, you
  85. 02:46know, you're getting up at night more
  86. 02:48frequently. You trip over a carpet or a
  87. 02:50rug and, you know, if you're in bed
  88. 02:52recovering from these falls, you're not
  89. 02:54walking. You know, your hippocampus is
  90. 02:56shrinking. If you ask people, "How's
  91. 02:58how's your balance?" Most people are
  92. 03:00like, "Well, it's fine. I I don't
  93. 03:01haven't had a fall." But there's a very
  94. 03:04simple test. We could do it now if you
  95. 03:05wanted where you just stand up and see
  96. 03:07if you can balance on one leg for at
  97. 03:08least 10 seconds. And I have, you know,
  98. 03:11when I do presentations, I do this
  99. 03:13ideally 30, 40 minutes into the
  100. 03:15presentation. We shouldn't be sitting
  101. 03:16for so long. And most people do pretty
  102. 03:18well. It's a younger group and sometimes
  103. 03:20it's older adults I'm speaking to. And
  104. 03:22you can tell, you know, I'm like, "Make
  105. 03:24sure you have something you can hold on
  106. 03:25to." And you can tell that balance
  107. 03:27changes considerably with age. And then
  108. 03:30I say, "Okay, now try doing it with your
  109. 03:32eyes closed."
  110. 03:33And I actually usually don't do this
  111. 03:35with my older adult group because then
  112. 03:36you see the younger people start to tip.
  113. 03:38And you know, it's very we get a lot of
  114. 03:40cues from our visual environment for
  115. 03:42balance.
  116. 03:42The young the older people tip.
  117. 03:44Everyone, you'll see the younger people
  118. 03:46start to tip. That's why it's even more
  119. 03:48surprising.
  120. 03:48It's like a field sobriety test. It it
  121. 03:50very much is, but it's this again from
  122. 03:52this metacognitive standpoint where you
  123. 03:54think your balance is fine because you
  124. 03:56haven't had a fall, but you could be
  125. 03:58close to falling at any given point.
  126. 04:00And so, you know, the cerebellum, the
  127. 04:02almost very primitive part of the brain
  128. 04:04is involved in a lot of this. What's
  129. 04:06interesting with balance is it's very
  130. 04:07trainable. And so, you know, there's
  131. 04:09parts of balance that involve visual
  132. 04:11inner ear, but if you engage in some
  133. 04:14training, and it can be as simple as
  134. 04:15standing on one leg or doing yoga or
  135. 04:17taichi, you can improve your balance
  136. 04:19considerably within a month or two. And
  137. 04:21so, I think when I talk to older adults
  138. 04:24who, you know, sometimes are even
  139. 04:25middle-aged worried about their memory,
  140. 04:27I think balance is often overlooked and
  141. 04:29it's something that's trainable. Um, so
  142. 04:31I've started to do it a little bit and
  143. 04:33I've noticed changes in my balance.
  144. 04:35Sometimes good. I also notice I don't
  145. 04:37sleep well. my balance isn't as good.
  146. 04:39Um, and I think that's probably the most
  147. 04:41important thing to be on the lookout for
  148. 04:43because, you know, these things are
  149. 04:44related. If you if you lose your balance
  150. 04:46and you have a fall, you're not going to
  151. 04:47be engaging in physical exercise. Your
  152. 04:49memor is going to decline.
  153. 04:51Yeah, the old skiers and the uh old
  154. 04:54surfers look to be in pretty awesome
  155. 04:56shape. Um, there are million compounds
  156. 04:59there. The sunlight, the social
  157. 05:01connection, the water, the cold, the,
  158. 05:04you know, I mean, there are a bunch of
  159. 05:05things. Um, obviously it's not just the
  160. 05:08skiing or the surfing, but there are
  161. 05:10certain sports where you look at the
  162. 05:12people and you say, "Okay, they're not
  163. 05:14the biggest and strongest, nor are they
  164. 05:16the ones with the most endurance, but on
  165. 05:18balance, they seem strong. Their posture
  166. 05:21looks good."

  167. Breathing Habits of Super Agers

  168. 05:22Yeah.
  169. 05:22Um, they seem relatively happy. Who
  170. 05:27knows, right? I'm intrigued by the fact
  171. 05:30that I look at a lot of these videos of
  172. 05:33of uh super aers and athletes in their
  173. 05:3670s, 80s, 90s who are doing remarkably
  174. 05:39well. It's very rare to see a video of
  175. 05:42athletes or non-athletes past 80 where
  176. 05:45they're breathing through their nose
  177. 05:46with their mouth shut. Almost always you
  178. 05:48see, [panting and sighs]
  179. 05:50now I'm not saying it's causal,
  180. 05:52but there does seem to be a shift in the
  181. 05:54way that people breathe as they get
  182. 05:55older. just look at some of the um I
  183. 05:58forget his name now. He's a television
  184. 06:00um personality uh who's been around a
  185. 06:02long he's in his hundreds and he's been
  186. 06:04on YouTube and the and news programs
  187. 06:06recently. But at rest, it's like a mouth
  188. 06:09open breathing pattern. You kind of
  189. 06:12wonder whether or not they're getting
  190. 06:13enough oxygen to their brain. And I I do
  191. 06:15think that the shift in how we breathe,
  192. 06:18spontaneous movement, these things all
  193. 06:19go together.
  194. 06:20Um and I do think each
  195. 06:22component part needs to be looked at
  196. 06:23individually. So, okay. So, it's the
  197. 06:26movement, it's the exercise, the
  198. 06:28novelty, the social connection, but
  199. 06:29ultimately there's a lot of other things
  200. 06:32going on. Like, we know older people
  201. 06:33just don't they don't move spontaneously
  202. 06:35very much. We had Twilight Tharp in
  203. 06:37here, the you know, world famous
  204. 06:39choreographer, and she's in her
  205. 06:40somewhere in her 80s, you know, she can
  206. 06:42deadlift um twice her body weight,
  207. 06:45works out at 5:00 a.m. every morning for
  208. 06:47two hours.
  209. 06:48Wow.
  210. 06:48She boxed for a while.
  211. 06:50Yeah.
  212. 06:50Um but actual boxing cuz she's Twilight,
  213. 06:53right? She's she's a really uh she's got
  214. 06:55a lot of spirit, but
  215. 06:57she doesn't sit like I'm sitting like
  216. 06:59kind of lazy back. She's she's fully
  217. 07:02active and she's she's moving and she's
  218. 07:04nasal breathing when unless she's
  219. 07:06speaking like she's
  220. 07:07she's her nervous system is turned on. I
  221. 07:11notice that and I go, God willing, I'll
  222. 07:13be I'll be like that. But I notic with
  223. 07:15each passing year, I take a few more
  224. 07:17opportunities to lean against things as
  225. 07:18opposed to standing up, not leaning
  226. 07:20against them, or starting to resemble
  227. 07:23the bulldogs I've owned. There's
  228. 07:24opportunity to lie down, they lie down.
  229. 07:26If there's opportunity, you know, sleep.
  230. 07:28And I don't know that that's good. Maybe

  231. Importance of Brain Oxygenation

  232. 07:30we need to nudge ourselves to be a
  233. 07:32little more active than we're
  234. 07:33comfortable. I think the insight is so
  235. 07:35important to be like, I notice I'm doing
  236. 07:37more of this or I'm looking a lot like
  237. 07:39this and I'm surprised. So things
  238. 07:41starting like posture or even breathing.
  239. 07:43And I think you know I'm not an expert
  240. 07:45in this area but just getting more
  241. 07:46oxygen to the brain is so important. I
  242. 07:48think that's probably the mechanism be
  243. 07:50you know for physical exercise you're
  244. 07:52getting more oxygen to your brain which
  245. 07:53really as you get older it's harder to
  246. 07:56do that and so exercise might be kind of
  247. 07:58the mechanism um that does that and
  248. 08:00maybe with the you know advances we're
  249. 08:02going to find other ways to do that. Uh
  250. 08:05but I think that insight is is really
  251. 08:07important and it's also you know we have
  252. 08:09age-based stereotypes of what happens
  253. 08:12like oh as you get older you know let's
  254. 08:14say you know my knee hurts and some
  255. 08:16people are like oh well you're just
  256. 08:18getting older
  257. 08:19well my other knee is the same age and
  258. 08:21it feels fine [laughter]
  259. 08:24so something's going on maybe there's
  260. 08:25some [clears throat] trauma there's
  261. 08:26something but it does give you this
  262. 08:28feeling like hey there's something I can
  263. 08:30do or maybe you know I'm a firm believer
  264. 08:32like in physical therapy like a lot of
  265. 08:34the exercises we do, you know, if you
  266. 08:36keep doing the same thing, that's great.
  267. 08:37But then you lose a lot of the other,
  268. 08:39you know, muscle mass and, you know, I
  269. 08:42think exercise, even walking, people
  270. 08:44will say it's really like a controlled
  271. 08:46form of losing your balance and
  272. 08:48regaining it and losing your balance and
  273. 08:49regaining it.
  274. 08:50And so you add that into hiking, which
  275. 08:52is has unpredictable surfaces. You know,
  276. 08:54all these muscles that are, you know,
  277. 08:56you're not using too often now have to
  278. 08:58be engaged. And so I think I think that
  279. 09:01coming back to like challenging yourself
  280. 09:02can be very important. putting yourself
  281. 09:04in uncomfortable positions. I mean, it's
  282. 09:06great to be on this podcast, but there's
  283. 09:08a time where I'm like, I'm not sure I
  284. 09:10want to do this, right? Like, you know,
  285. 09:11how do you get that
  286. 09:12feeling that way now?
  287. 09:13No, now I feel fine. But I think as we
  288. 09:16put ourselves in these uncomfortable
  289. 09:17positions and I remember, you know, when
  290. 09:20I first started teaching, you're like,
  291. 09:21gosh, 300 people, you know, is this this
  292. 09:24is an uncomfortable situation. And one
  293. 09:26of my mentors said, you know what,
  294. 09:29there's only one thing you need to do,
  295. 09:30and that's breathe. because you start to
  296. 09:33forget that, you know, that is the most
  297. 09:35primitive thing to get oxygen to your
  298. 09:37brain that then you can do what you
  299. 09:39probably can do quite well.
  300. 09:41And that's a a psychological oversight
  301. 09:43where we just kind of start, I don't
  302. 09:45know if it's just mouth breathing, but
  303. 09:46as we get older, you know, or there's
  304. 09:48more stress, we stop being aware of, you
  305. 09:51know, the things that can really help
  306. 09:53us.
  307. 09:59[music]