Latest News and Events

Fall 2008

Welcome Chien-Ting "Kelvin" Wu and Kevin O’Leary

The NCK Lab would like to welcome the newest members of our research team Chien-Ting "Kelvin" Wu and Kevin O’Leary.

March, 2008

The NCK Lab was recently awarded a grant!

The NCK Lab was recently awarded a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institute of Health to conduct a clinical trial aimed at understanding the relationship between physical activity and cognitive function in preadolescent children. This trial will begin during the summer of 2008.

Spring 2008

Welcome Dana

The NCK Lab would like to welcome the newest member of our research team Dana Ghareeb.

December 20, 2007

Be Smart, Exercise Your Heart: Exercise Effects on Brain and Cognition

Published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience and authored by Dr's Charles Hillman, Kirk Erikson, and Art Kramer. This article provides an intensive background of our area of science and marks the laboratory's highest profile publication to date. To view this article click here.

October 17, 2007

Dr. Charles Hillman Named to Top 100 Most Influential Educators List

Charles Hillman, professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, joins other notables on the list of 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America announced by the Institute for International Sport. The list includes Tiger Woods, Phil Jackson, and Bob Costas and honors those who use sport to educate and build positive values. To read more, see the list click here.

Fall 2007

Welcome Phil

The NCK Lab would like to welcome the newest member of our research team Phil O'Connor. Phil wokred in the laboratory as an undergraduate and joins us this year in the masters program.

Summer 2007

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Buck and Dr. Jason Themanson, who both successfully defended their dissertations. Dr. Buck is now an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Chicago State University. Dr. Themanson is now an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Illinois Wesleyan University.

August 19, 2007

Lobes of Steel

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Lobes of Steel" by Gretchen Reynolds in The New York Times Sports Magazine "Play". "Other University of Illinois scientists have studied school-age children and found that those who have a higher level of aerobic fitnes processed information more efficiently; they were quicker on a battery of computerized flashcard tests. The researchers also found that higher levels of aerobic fitness ocrresponded to better standardized test scores among a set of Illinois public school students. The scientist next plan to study how student's scores change as their fitness improves." To read the entire article click here.

July 30, 2007

Legislation to Increase the Number of Minutes Children are Physically Active During the School Day

Recent legislation in Kentucky and Texas now requires children to participate in more minutes of physical education per week. In Kentucky, Senator Katie Stine proposed Senate Bill #110 to increase physical education to 150 minutes per week for public school children. To read more on the bill click here. Similar legislation was introduced in Texas through Senate Bill #580 by Senator Jane Nelsone and House Bill #1257 by Representative Rob Eissler. To read more see http://www.nelson.senate.state.tx.us/pr07/p052807b.htm and http://www.cooperaerobics.com/corporate/PRTexasSenateBill530.aspx.

June, 2007

Laufen fürs Merken (translated from German "Running for the Note")

Our research is mentioned in Focus Magazine's 3rd part of the series "Forever Young - Neurologists discover the paramount importance of exercise and sports for the performance of the brain". To read the entire article in German click here. For a translated version click here.

May 11, 2007

Building A Better Brain

NBC Channel 5 News covered our research in children for a special on physical activity in schools. To view the news clip click here.

March 26, 2007

Health: Can Exercise Make You Smarter?

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Health: Can Exercise Make you Smarter?" by Mary Carmichael in the March 26th, 2007 issue of Newsweek.

"The stereotype of the "dumb jock" has never sounded right to Charles Hillman. A jock himself, he plays hockey four times a week, but when he isn't bodychecking his opponents on the ice, he's giving his mind a comparable workout in his neuroscience and kinesiology lab at the University of Illinois. Nearly every semester in his classroom, he says, students on the women's crosscountry team set the curve on his exams. So recently he started wondering if there was a vital and overlooked link between brawn and brains—if long hours at the gym could somehow build up not just muscles, but minds. With colleagues, he rounded up 259 Illinois third and fifth graders, measured their body mass index and put them through classic PE routines: the "sitandreach," a brisk run and timed pushups and situps. Then he checked their physical abilities against their math and reading scores on a statewide standardized test. Sure enough, on the whole, the kids with the fittest bodies were the ones with the fittest brains, even when factors such as socioeconomic status were taken into account. Sports, Hillman concluded, might indeed be boosting the students' intellect— and also, as long as he didn't "take a puck to the head," his own."

"...In Hillman's look at third and fifth grade PE students, exercise sped up not just executive functioning, but a broad variety of skills ranging from math to logic to reading, all of which rope in many regions of the brain."

"...Inspired by Hillman's work, Kentucky State Sen. Katie Stine recently proposed a bill making a daily half hour of PE mandatory for kids up to eighth grade. It passed the Senate last month."

To read the entire article click here.

January 1, 2007

Study: Exercise Benefits Younger Brains Too

Our cross-sectional research with collaborator Eco de Geus, at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, is discussed in an article entitled "Study: Exercise Benefits Younger Brains Too" by Greg Kline in The News-Gazette. To read the entire article click here.

January 1, 2006

New Name... Same Great Research

The Exercise and Sport Psychophysiology Laboratory has changed its name to the Neurocognitive Kinesiology Laboratory. The main purpose of this name change is to better represent our research focus.

January, 2006

Minds in Motion (MiM) Clinical Trial Update

In 2003, the Exercise and Sport Psychophysiology Laboratory was awarded a grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the relationship between fitness and mental health in older adults. Accordingly, the Minds in Motion (MiM) clinical trial was initiated to examine the relationship between these factors. Data collection has recently been completed and the trial is now in its first phase of data analysis.

October, 2005

Science Has Linked Aerobic Exercise to Improved Brainpower

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Science Has Linked Aerobic Exercise to Improved Brainpower" by Adam Campbell in the October edition of Men's Health. To read the entire article click here.

November 8, 2004

Finding Fitness, Educational Links

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Finding Fitness, Educational Links" by Greg Kline in The News-Gazette. To read the entire article click here.

October 22, 2004

Fit Children May Make Better Students: Physical Fitness Linked to Academic Achievement in Children

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Fit Children May Make Better Students: Physical Fitness Linked to Academic Achievement in Children" by Jennifer Warner published in WebMD Medical News. To read the entire article click here.

October 19, 2004

Strong Relationship Between Kids Academic Achievement and Fitness

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Strong Relationship Between Kids Academic Achievement and Fitness" published on News-Medical.Net. To read the entire article click here.

April 9, 2004

Brain Fitness: Exercise Saves Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Brain Fitness: Exdercise Saves Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults" by Melissa Lee Phillips in Neuroscience for Kids.

"Physical fitness may also be important for some aspects of cognition in children, says Colcombe's colleague Charles Hillman, also at the University of Illinois. Hillman has found that highly fit children between 7 and 11 years old perform an attention task faster and more accurately that their unfit peers. In addition, the fit children's brain exhibited a characteristic pattern of electrical activity that was not matched in their less-fit classmates."

To read the entire article click here.

May, 2003

Aging Adults: Stay Fit, Think Fast

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Aging Adults: Stay Fit, Think Fast" published in Consumer Reports on Health. To read the entire article click here.

2003

NIA awards the Exercise and Sport Psychophysiology Laboratory a grant to conduct a clinical trial.

In 2003, the Exercise and Sport Psychophysiology Laboratory was awarded a grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the relationship between fitness and mental health in older adults. Accordingly, the Minds in Motion (MiM) clinical trial was initiated to examine the relationship between these factors.

June 24, 2002

For Seniors, Activity Helps Mind as Well as Muscle

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "For Seniors, Activity Helps Mind as Well as Muscle" by Dianne Partie Lange in The Los Angeles Times, Home Edition. To read the entire article click here.

June 22, 2002

Exercise Good for Older Minds, Researchers Say

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Exercise Good for Older Minds, Researchers Say" by Greg Kline in The News-Gazette. To read the entire article click here.

June, 2002

Exercise May Help Improve Brainpower, Study Finds

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Exercise May Help Improve Brainpower, Study Finds" in Reuters Health, New York. To read the entire article click here.

June 1, 2002

Fit Seniors Better Able to React When Quick Thinking Needed, Study Says

Our research is mentioned in an article entitled "Fit Seniors Better Able to React When Quick Thinking Needed, Study Says" by Melissa Mitchell by the UIUC News Bureau. To read the entire article click here.

December 25, 2000

Faces in the Crowd

Our research is discussed in an article entitled "Faces in the Crowd" by Steve Rushin in Sports Illustrated. To read the entire article click here.