It is well known that exercise improves cardiovascular fitness, promotes a stable and healthy body weight, and strengthens the immune system. There is now growing evidence that exercise also improves emotional health. Studies of humans and other animals have shown that voluntary exercise reduces many of the signs and symptoms of anxiety and promotes stress resilience. Professor Falls will review this literature and share some recent experiments carried out by him and his colleagues examining how exercise changes emotional circuits of the brain and how these changes may serve to reduce anxiety and promote stress resilience.
Full Professor Lecture:
The College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series was designed to recognize faculty newly promoted to full professor rank.