Exercise 4 Hours After Learning Helps Boost Memory

Summary: According to researchers, people who exercised four hours after learning something new retained the information better two days later than those who either didn’t exercise or exercised immediately following the learning experience.

Source: Cell Press.

A new study suggests an intriguing strategy to boost memory for what you’ve just learned: hit the gym four hours later. The findings reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 16 show that physical exercise after learning improves memory and memory traces, but only if the exercise is done in a specific time window and not immediately after learning.

“It shows that we can improve memory consolidation by doing sports after learning,” says Guillén Fernández of the Donders Institute at the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

In the new study, Fernández, along with Eelco van Dongen and their colleagues, tested the effects of a single session of physical exercise after learning on memory consolidation and long-term memory. Seventy-two study participants learned 90 picture-location associations over a period of approximately 40 minutes before being randomly assigned to one of three groups: one group performed exercise immediately, the second performed exercise four hours later, and the third did not perform any exercise. The exercise consisted of 35 minutes of interval training on an exercise bike at an intensity of up to 80 percent of participants’ maximum heart rates. Forty-eight hours later, participants returned for a test to show how much they remembered while their brains were imaged via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The researchers found that those who exercised four hours after their learning session retained the information better two days later than those who exercised either immediately or not at all. The brain images also showed that exercise after a time delay was associated with more precise representations in the hippocampus, an area important to learning and memory, when an individual answered a question correctly.

Image shows a person riding a bike.
The researchers found that those who exercised four hours after their learning session retained the information better two days later than those who exercised either immediately or not at all. NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes.

“Our results suggest that appropriately timed physical exercise can improve long-term memory and highlight the potential of exercise as an intervention in educational and clinical settings,” the researchers conclude.

It’s not yet clear exactly how or why delayed exercise has this effect on memory. However, earlier studies of laboratory animals suggest that naturally occurring chemical compounds in the body known as catecholamines, including dopamine and norepinephrine, can improve memory consolidation, the researchers say. One way to boost catecholamines is through physical exercise.

Fernández says they will now use a similar experimental setup to study the timing and molecular underpinnings of exercise and its influence on learning and memory in more detail.

About this memory research article

Funding: The researchers were supported by a grant from the European Research Council.

Source: Joseph Caputo – Cell Press
Image Source: This NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Physical Exercise Performed Four Hours after Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval” by Eelco V. van Dongen, Ingrid H.P. Kersten, Isabella C. Wagner, Richard G.M. Morris, and Guillén Fernández in Radiology. Published online June 16 2016 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.071

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Cell Press. “Exercise 4 Hours After Learning Helps Boost Memory.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 16 June 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-exercise-learning-4496/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Cell Press. (2016, June 16). Exercise 4 Hours After Learning Helps Boost Memory. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved June 16, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-exercise-learning-4496/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Cell Press. “Exercise 4 Hours After Learning Helps Boost Memory.” https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-exercise-learning-4496/ (accessed June 16, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Physical Exercise Performed Four Hours after Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval

Highlights
•Performing aerobic exercise 4 hr after learning improved associative memory
•Exercise at this time also increased hippocampal pattern similarity during retrieval
•Exercise performed immediately after learning had no effect on memory retention
•Exercise could have potential as a memory intervention in educational settings

Summary
Persistent long-term memory depends on successful stabilization and integration of new memories after initial encoding. This consolidation process is thought to require neuromodulatory factors such as dopamine, noradrenaline, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Without the release of such factors around the time of encoding, memories will decay rapidly. Recent studies have shown that physical exercise acutely stimulates the release of several consolidation-promoting factors in humans, raising the question of whether physical exercise can be used to improve memory retention. Here, we used a single session of physical exercise after learning to exogenously boost memory consolidation and thus long-term memory. Three groups of randomly assigned participants first encoded a set of picture-location associations. Afterward, one group performed exercise immediately, one 4 hr later, and the third did not perform any exercise. Participants otherwise underwent exactly the same procedures to control for potential experimental confounds. Forty-eight hours later, participants returned for a cued-recall test in a magnetic resonance scanner. With this design, we could investigate the impact of acute exercise on memory consolidation and retrieval-related neural processing. We found that performing exercise 4 hr, but not immediately, after encoding improved the retention of picture-location associations compared to the no-exercise control group. Moreover, performing exercise after a delay was associated with increased hippocampal pattern similarity for correct responses during delayed retrieval. Our results suggest that appropriately timed physical exercise can improve long-term memory and highlight the potential of exercise as an intervention in educational and clinical settings.

“Physical Exercise Performed Four Hours after Learning Improves Memory Retention and Increases Hippocampal Pattern Similarity during Retrieval” by Eelco V. van Dongen, Ingrid H.P. Kersten, Isabella C. Wagner, Richard G.M. Morris, and Guillén Fernández in Radiology. Published online June 16 2016 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.071

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