The list of health benefits that come along with regular exercise may have grown with a new study uncovering a link between staying active and the size of parts of the brain responsible for memory and learning capabilities.

Even better, the exercise doesn’t have to be overly intense or prolonged to have brain boosting effects, according to the experts behind the study. The team included researchers from the Pacific Neuroscience Institute Brain Health Center (PBHC) at Providence Saint John’s Health Center and Washington University in St. Louis.

The study looked at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of 10,125 people, finding those who said they regularly engaged in some kind of physical activity – like walking, running, or sports – had larger brain volumes in specific areas.

Those areas included the ‘decision making’ frontal lobe and the hippocampus – a part of the brain that’s important in how memories are stored and handled. The study also measured the total volume of each brain’s gray matter, which helps the brain process information, the its connective white matter.