The claim is that by running around outdoors, the brain gets used in a variety of ways such as navigation, decision-making, and sensory processing. Then why doesn't driving around in a car have similar benefits? Or does it?
They are vastly different things. Feeling the ground, constantly adapting your gait, managing your resources (consciously or otherwise), navigating, pacing yourself, the smells, the sounds, wind and weather. Your thoughts. Eventually hunger, thirst, and maybe an ache or so become noticeable. Pushing through anyway.
A car on the other hand has layers and layers of abstraction between you and your environment. Satnav, ABS, suspension, petrol gages, heated seats, lane-assist, gear boxes, seatbelts, AC, and automatic windscreen wipers.
Unless you're a racing driver in a suitably setup car, of course.
For the record, I believe the added blood flow from aerobic exercise is the most important factor -- I have no citation though. Being in a car is certainly different from being directly in the environment, but it's still mentally demanding, akin to a video game perhaps. I don't think the brain is somehow specially stimulated by natural inputs, so isolation of the body from the natural environment via technology should not make that much of a difference.
An experiment comparing treadmill running vs outside running (as mentioned in the article) would help determine to whether tasks like navigation and non-essential sensory stimuli like smelling the air contribute to BDNF levels. I'd be curious to see if there'd be a difference.
I doubt driving (or video games) engages the brain the same way.
Driving, you're heavily insulated from most noise (or, like in my Jeep, your hearing is overwhelmed by road noise). You're not smelling your environment, nor feeling it, and certainly you're not exercising as many muscle groups.
I think the key is the amount of stress induced while driving.
If you're driving an appliance like a Tesla or Camry you're getting next to zero stimulation.
If you're driving,say, a clapped out, no powersteering, manual trans G-body, the level of stress and multitasking is an order of magnitude greater.
Though in that case let's level of stress might be more if a detriment than a benefit.
Good question. It might - maybe that's why people say - driving is stressing or exhausting. One distinction - While running you are physically moving, and not while driving
>In particular, playing Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes a day over two months increased adult volunteers’ brain volume in their right hippocampus, the right prefrontal cortex, and the cerebellum. These regions in the brain are responsible for memory formation, strategic planning, muscle control, and spatial navigation.
