Does Slow Running Benefit the Brain? A New Study Says Yes.

It’s easy, as a runner, to slip into an all-or-nothing mindset. There may have been times when you’ve caught yourself thinking, “What’s the point of going on a run if I can’t commit to at least 3 miles?” or “If I’m going to run this slow, I might as well walk—or skip it altogether.”

The reality is that something is almost always better than nothing, and running, even very slowly for a short time, can boost your brain and mood.

In Aug. 2026, researchers in Japan set out to discover if very light intensity running would affect the brain, especially the parts that are involved with executive functioning. They weren’t curious about the effect of very light intensity running over time; rather, they wanted to know if a single bout of light intensity running—just one workout—could yield noteworthy brain benefits.

For their study, researchers recruited 24 young and healthy adults, including 13 males and 11 females, with the average ages of 23.38 and 20.55, respectively.

The main experiment included a control (CON) day and a very slow running (SRUN) day, with every participant engaging in both days. For the CON session, participants sat on a chair on an unmoving treadmill for ten minutes.

Before the SRUN session, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2peak) was measured for each participant to determine a very slow run speed that would elicit 35 percent VO2peak. Then, participants ran on the treadmill for ten minutes at their predetermined very slow speeds.

Males averaged 3.39 mph, and females averaged 2.40 mph. While these are easily walking speeds, the researchers observed that participants were able to maintain running form.

Before and immediately after each session, participants completed the following: The Color-Word Stroop task (CWST) to measure inhibitory control and the Two-Dimensional Mood Scale (TDMS) to measure pleasurable moods.

A Test of Cognitive Functioning

For the CWST task, participants were shown two rows of letters on a monitor and had to determine (by pressing “yes” or “no”) if the color of the letters in the top row matched the color name written in the bottom row.

There were three conditions: Neutral, Congruent, or Incongruent. For the neutral condition, Xs were written on the top row in a particular color, and the name of that color was written in black on the bottom row.

For the congruent condition, the word “red” was written in red in the top row and, in the bottom row, the word red was written in black. The incongruent condition was included to introduce cognitive interference. In that condition, the word in the top row did not match the colors of the letters, but the bottom row still had the name of the upper row letters’ colors written in black.

For each trial, in which either the neutral, congruent, or incongruent condition was displayed, participants would, as quickly as possible, press either “yes” or “no” to report whether or not the color of the letters in the top row matched the color row in the bottom row.

Participants were given three practice sessions to make sure they understood how to perform the task.

So, what does CWST measure? It directly measures something called Stroop interference, which is the difference in reaction time between the incongruent and neutral conditions.

Essentially, Stroop interference is a way to assess executive function, with lower values indicating higher executive functioning. In this study, Stroop interference was lower after participants ran versus the seated control setting.

Mood-Boosting Benefits

The TDMS assessed participants’ arousal and pleasure states. Participants were asked to rate the following eight descriptors on a scale from 0 (“I’m not experiencing this at all”) to 5 (“I’m currently feeling this way quite extremely”): energetic, lively, lethargic, listless, relaxed, calm, irritated, and nervous.

The results indicated that immediately following the short and very slow run, participants reported feeling more energized and content than after the control setting.

Brain Activation Results

But what effect does ten minutes of slow running have on brain activity? To examine this, researchers used a non-invasive brain imaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS measures changes in hemoglobin throughout the brain’s cortex, which corresponds with cortical activity.

For this study, participants wore an fNIRS cap with electrodes while they performed the CWST task, five minutes after running. As hypothesized, very slow running can generate increased activity in multiple subregions of the prefrontal cortex—namely, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and the right and left frontopolar areas.

Activation of these brain regions keeps us sharp and functioning well day to day; the prefrontal cortex is involved with executive functions such as managing competing goals, decision-making, reasoning, and self-control.

What About Head Movement?

There was one more variable that the researchers were curious about: head acceleration. Even among smooth runners that glide across the ground, the head moves vertically with each step.

A previous study suggested that this mechanical force may underlie some of the psychological benefits of running by impacting neurotransmitter activity. So, the researchers of the current study sought to explore that more. They found that even the small head acceleration that occurs during very slow running was positively correlated with the amount of post-run pleasure the participants reported.

As is the case with every study, there were a few limitations. First, electrodes (such as on the fNIRS device) can pick up signals other than neural activation, such as skin blood flow. The researchers minimized this potential by carefully designing their protocol and checking if the data made sense. Second, head acceleration is obviously different between seated controls and running conditions, so a third, walking group would enhance future experiments.

What This Means for You

Here’s the main takeaway: a single, ten-minute run at a very slow, almost walking pace may be enough to boost short-term cognitive performance and elevate your mood.

Consider what this means if you’re returning to running after an injury or illness. Or, perhaps you’re in a new season of life, and you can’t, realistically, carve out more than a few minutes to move your body. This study encourages all of us to keep running, no matter how fast or far we go.

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