Walking is good for your head.

Sure, we knew about the improvements it can provide to aerobic capacity, not to mention muscles and joints, but two recently released studies show that walking can enhance brain function, too.

Walking or other repetitive exercise can change the brain in a number of ways, says Dr. Gary Small, professor of psychiatry and aging at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, at the University of California, Los Angeles. The heart pumps more blood, affecting not only muscles but also the brain. “Your brain needs blood, because in the blood are nutrients and oxygen, which are good for the cells and will make the brain healthier,” he says. “The vessels that deliver the nutrients also branch out and become more effective.”

The act of doing a movement over and over also can stimulate the brain’s neurocircuits, he adds, resulting in activity in various regions of the brain. That activity may decrease over time as the body becomes more efficient at the activity. But other stimulation can have an effect — when a person walks outside with a friend, for example, the brain is guiding a number of activities, such as talking and observing.

In one study, stroke patients put through a walking program could walk better and faster afterward, and the movements activated different areas of their brain. Researchers expected to see most activity in the cortex, which governs motor skills, but instead much activity was seen in the subcortical region, which, says lead author Dr. Andreas Luft, “has some role in walking, but maybe we’ve underestimated it. We’re actually putting this idea back as a potential mechanism of how walking is controlled.”

About half of 71 study subjects with some movement disability were asked to walk on a safety-rigged treadmill three times a week for up to 40 minutes, increasing intensity to a moderate level as the study progressed.

The others did assisted stretching exercises for the same amount of time. All were tested in the beginning and after six months for speed and aerobic capacity; about half in each group were given functional magnetic resonance imaging tests before and after to determine brain activity.

The walking group increased its speed by 51 percent, while the stretching group improved by 11 percent. The walkers’ fitness levels also increased, with aerobic capacity rising about 18 percent, while the stretching group’s fitness levels decreased slightly.