While studying the effects of different types of exercise on the brain, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and other institutions found that the participants who danced for one-hour sessions three times a week showed an improvement in some of the white matter of their brains (namely, the fornix, the part that controls processing speed and memory), while the participants who did a walking or stretching regimen showed the white matter degeneration that is characteristic of aging. Dance has proven so effective at helping the brain that it is now being used to treat people with Parkinson’s. In the past decade, researchers have become more interested in why dance is so beneficial to the brain. They theorize that music stimulates the reward centers of the brain, making you feel good and reducing stress, while the physical movements activate sensory and motor parts of the brain (among other parts). Overall, then, dance involves much of the brain, helping improve brain health as it strengthens memory and the connections be- tween nerve cells. One study showed that of a number of physical activities such as golf and swimming only dance actually decreased the risk of dementia. So dust off your dancing shoes and hit the floor.