AMES, Iowa -- There are volumes of research on the health benefits of exercise on the body, but what about the mind? A national research leader who has studied the effects of exercise on mental health will address that topic as Iowa State University's Pease Family Scholar on Thursday, Oct. 13.
Bradley Hatfield -- a professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he also has an affiliate appointment with the university's neural and cognitive sciences program -- will present a free, public lecture at 7 p.m. His talk, "Physical Fitness and Mental Health: Understanding Exercise and Sport Psychology through the Study of Brain Processes," will take place in the Campanile Room of ISU's Memorial Union.
The past president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, Hatfield is renowned for his study on the effects of exercise on mental health. He is a member of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and also has expertise in both the psychological and physiological domains of sport performance. Hatfield has focused his research on brain processes during skilled performance, using EEG measures of cerebral activity.
Hatfield's research deals with both the health-related and performance-related aspects of exercise/sport settings -- attempting to describe possible mechanisms underlying the mental health aspects of exercise involvement. He has also studied brain EEG activity in athletes of varying skill levels to assess their cognitive and emotive processes in various controlled environments.
"Our imaging studies show that when elite athletes perform, their brains use fewer but more appropriate neurons," Hatfield said in a 2002 Shape magazine article. He says everyday exercisers can also train themselves to use only the requisite parts of their brains, effecting more skillful workouts.
The Pease Family Scholar program was created in memory of Harvey and Bomell Pease, Newport Beach, Calif. The endowment was established in 1991 by their son, Dean Pease, and his wife, Sally, to bring visiting scholars to the Iowa State campus. Dean Pease, who died in 1994, chaired the department of health and human performance from 1987 to 1990.
